Against Odds and Oddities
by MoonyMoonsault
Summary: She just lost her SHIMMER championship belt because of an injury, her only brother lived and breathed for TNA – so why does the WWE seem so interested in her all of a sudden? Daniel Bryan/OC ; Bryan Danielson/OC
1. And bruises

x

**Author's Note:**

_Hey everyone! This is my first attempt to write a Wrestling Story, or actually the first one I dare to publish. I've been a huge Wrestling fan ever since I was little, which includes the wrestling business outside of the WWE as well... _

_Sometimes a more avid fangirl, sometimes less, now I am willing to give writing a try and not keep my story ideas for myself anymore, especially since one of my FAVORITE Ring of Honor wrestlers decided to join the WWE a while ago._

_Anyways, I'm hoping you are in for a bumpy ride, _

_I'm always open for suggestions since I'm not 100% sure where I want to go with this.  
><em>

**Disclaimer:**

_If I would seriously own any mentined wrestler that isn't my original character in this story, I'd be busy doing naughty things to them, alas I don't. Merely Faye. _

_Everyone else belongs to their respective owner/their company._

_I'm also searching for someone who'd be interested in being my **beta-reader** for this story._

_English isn't my first language so, yeah, an__yone?_

**Rating:**

_M for cursing, bad language and possibly some mature situations in the future._

**Pairings:**

_Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson x OC x __

_x_

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><p>x<p>

x

"Outsh."

Faye winced audibly as her still sore leg collided with the low positioned table in her living room. Breathing in loudly she tried to shake off the nagging pain in her shin, rubbing on her skin with her hand while trying to jump away from the table of doom.

"Stupid...fucking... arghh" she mumbled angrily as she wobbled around it, very ungracefully trying to make her way into her kitchen of her Detroit apartment without bumping into anything else on her way. She sighed again, grabbing a water bottle from her big fridge once she made it into the red painted room, her bare feet feeling cold on the flagged floor. She ignored the dozens of pictures attached to the fridge with plenty of oh so colorful magnets. Pictures of her goofing around with her friends, her brother, smiling and grimacing into the camera – just being happy in general.

Yet they couldn't lift her spirits. 'Happy' Faye seemed to be on vacation she thought with a grim snort escaping her lips.

The colorful door was pushed shut without her sparing another glance at it.

The TV still blared loudly through her otherwise empty home, a faceless crowd screamed for a celebrity she did not know, the high pitched yells of the teenage girls made her cringe slightly. Yet she did not bother to turn it of. Was it MTV, CBS? Faye couldn't remember what she put on, she just did it for the noise anyway, absolutely hating the silence that seemed to consume her every time she was forced to spend time in her home. She hated to be alone with her thoughts that seemed to rampage whenever there was silence.

She actually liked her home. Heck – she worked her butt off to afford living in this area of Detroit and yet she would probably do anything right now not to be trapped in it at this very moment.

She should have been on the road, driving her beloved red 1967 Impala as fast as his tires would allow her, getting back the fucking title she just lost but **no** – instead she now spend her days sulking on her couch, watching crappy TV shows and the rainy afternoons back in the gym she used to train in ever since she made up her mind to become a professional wrestler in high school.

All that because she fell wrong, busting her knee.

She shuddered slightly as she recalled the memory of her accident almost four weeks ago, regretting now that she had decided to run around in nothing but hot pants and a Detroit Red Wings hoodie in her admittedly rather cold apartment.

Thinking about the accident still made Faye growl.

Of course, accidents did happen, especially in an industry she decided to work in, she couldn't even count the times she had visited her brother in hospital, yet somehow Faye always was lucky enough to get away without any greater injuries. Even now, her knee injury wasn't something severe, in a few of weeks she would be okay again, back to her old self but still – it annoyed her to no end.

She had to admit, it definitely had hurt her ego.

No, she did not complain that her title loss was scripted, the whole world of the wrestling business was scripted after all. She did not complain that she lost it to none other than Madison Eagles – who she could not stand on a very personal level.

She did not complain about anything and why? Faye knew that it was also scripted that she would win her title back at the first chance she could get, making _Riott_ the SHIMMER Woman's Athletes champion for the 8th time again. But when Madison pinned her with an Reverse Suplex her knee collided anything but softly with the hard mat of the ring, leaving not only the audience gasping for air in surprise. She recalls that she had to bite the insides of her mouth so hard to keep her from screaming out at the impact, that she spewed blood after the paramedics had guided her out of the hall.

Everyone at SHIMMER knew that something was definitely wrong with her when Faye did not return to her usual cheery, happy nature that was so very similar to her gimmick Riott. Instead she looked unusually pale and winced at every contact she made with her left leg so her close friend and mentor Sara Amato otherwise known as Sara del Rey urged her to go to the hospital – of course not without complaining on Faye's side.

The Detroit native wouldn't exactly call herself overly confided, or vain, but she had a certain trust in her skills and abilities, so her forced retreat from her beloved business after the doctors diagnose had busted her pretty pink bubble of being indestructible. Which she knew was a ridiculous thought in the first place.

She knew that she should be thankful that it wasn't something worse and of permanent damage and that with enough training she would be back kicking Madison's skinny ass all over the mat and back.

To say that she was a little frustrated would be an underestimation...

Even her own brother had laughed at her in her angered state with the big stupid grin of his, pinching her cheek and assuring her that she would be just fine instead of – well... comforting her.

* * *

><p>"<em>Stop grinning you moron! I'm seriously hurt you know?" she yelled at him when she was left alone in her hospital bed after the doctor checked her leg. Now all wrapped up all she could do was to wait for her to be released. In the meantime she had to endure the presence of her dearest brother, who couldn't stop grinning at her from the opposite of the room, still in his black training attire.<em>

"_Oh Fefe" he laughed, using that god-awful nickname he had for her since their childhood. _

"_You know, since I drove here like a madman after your call, I expected a little more, uhh.. 'drastic'" he used his fingers for the quotes, which made Faye just glare at him harder from her position on the more than uncomfortable hospital bed. She knew that he was just teasing her, but she couldn't help but feel the tears that where starting to form in her eyes, all the disappointment in herself crashing down on her at once._

"_Screw you Josh!" she said angrily, trying to blink away the tears as good as possible while also trying to ignore the forming lump in her throat. She damned herself for being so overly emotional at the moment."You know what? **Go**! Just.. Go! You don't **want** to be here? Fine just... Leave then, okay?" her voice quivered weakly and she felt her lips tremble._

_'**Fuck**' she cursed herself inwardly at her obvious display of weakness before she crossed her arms with one last huff._

"_Hey, hey," her brother said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as he walked over to the spare seat next to her bed. She refused to look at him. "Look, I'm sorry, that was stupid of me, I – " he stopped in mid sentence when Faye suddenly threw her head around, glaring at him, making her long brown hair bounce. She knew that – if she wanted – she had a mean glare..._

"_Fine," her older brother held up his hands in defeat "I'm an idiot, I'll just...shut up now." Faye snorted in response and they sat together in silence with nothing but the noise of a busy hospital surrounding them._

"_Soo," he drawled slowly after what seemed to be an eternity of awkward tension between them, "Madison Eagles, huh?"Faye raised her perfectly shaped eyebrow, fixing her blue eyes on his own in a 'so what?' manner. _

"_Tough opponent?" _

_Faye huffed again, trying to slap him on the shoulder. "Shut up, you know I would have gotten my title back immediately" she said defensively as he continued to laugh again._

"_She is 6 foot something Josh, you are 5 foot 10. That means she is taller than you and can probably kick **your** ass as well." He just smirked and shrugged lazily, "Aaah you know me sis, I'm not someone to back down from a challenge!" he said with a suggestive wink which made Faye shudder._

"_Ew. **Gross** Josh, gross!" Faye said at the obvious ambiguity of her brothers words, "don't let Jamie hear that though."_

_He still grinned at the mentioning of his girlfriend, yet was interrupted by the ringing of his phone._

**Everbody Wants To Be Just Like Me **

**Fame And Fortune Is Their Fantasy...**

_'Seriously?' Faye mouthed towards him, not knowing what to think of the fact that he seemed to use his own TNA Theme song as his ringtone, rolling her eyes as he chose to ignore her._

**Motorcity**

**Motorcity **

**Motorcity **

**I'm Rockin' All The Way To The Motorcity**

_Faye watched her brother with one raised eyebrow as he picked up the phone, both of them knowing who would be on the other side of the line. Despite her tries she couldn't bite back a small smile as she watched her brother's face split into a huge grin at the sound of his best friends voice._

"_Hm. Hmm. Yeah," he answered to the mumbling on the other end Faye couldn't make out. _

"_Naww, she's okay bro" he said with a laugh, his blue eyes sparkling with amusement "she just bruised her ego!"._

_'Oh.. you..' her eyes narrowed dangerously. He squeaked like a girl as she tried to hit him with one of her pillows, even trying to throw one after him as he ran through the room yelling 'abuse, abuse' over and over again._

"_I seriously hate you right now!" Faye said as she mockingly glared at him, "YOU TOO PATRICK!" she yelled through the room as she heard someone laughing loudly from the other side of her brothers phone._

"_We love you too doll!" Josh said with a grin as he picked up her pillow and Faye rolled her eyes with a loud sigh, still hearing Patrick laugh at the other end of the phone._

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><p>Faye had to grin at the memory, fidgeting with droplets of her cold water bottle as she sat down on one of the comfortable chairs in her kitchen. Joshua had been back on the road ever since they had last seen each other three and a half weeks ago, having his own career to take care of. Being the close siblings they where they talked to each other on daily basis. "Harassment" she mockingly called it whenever he choose to grace her with one of his check-up-calls, yet they both knew that she cherished their close relationship a lot.<p>

After all her older brother was one of the main reasons she pursued a wrestling career.

Her leg and knee had become better ever since then, left was a pretty nasty bruise that covered her left knee and almost the entire left side of her left upper tight as well. And of course there was still the soreness that made her wince every now and then – if she not decided to bump into something hard...

She sighed loudly again, letting her head rest on her exposed arms as they formed a pillow on her kitchen table, her long brown hair cascading over her shoulders.

Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed the big pile of letters and paper on the other end of the long table. Resting her chin on her hands she knew that she had neglected the growing stack for too long – being mostly away from her home usually let the unloved paperwork grow to an impressive size.

Without the slightest sign of enthusiasm she slid of the chair and moved towards the pile her neighbor Mrs. Flemyng so kindly collected for her whenever she was out of town.

Bills.

Faye rolled her eyes, not even bothering to open up the letter.

Bills. Again.

Advertisement.

Pizza delivery.

Bills.

Oh hey, another distant cousin decided to marry. She eyed the awfully purple colored envelope. Faye wasn't very close with the family on her father's side. Heck – even her own father wasn't. Yet they all kept up the facade of being prim and proper, sending out invitations to birthday celebrations, family gatherings and weddings when they knew that neither she, nor her brother or her mother or father would attend.

"Hypocrites" she mumbled laying aside the invitation without looking at it a second time.

A single big envelope caught her attention.

'To Miss Faye Harter' was neatly written in a typewriter font on the front which did not really made it look like it was another bill that wanted to be payed – always a good sign to Faye. With a shrug took one last sip of her half empty water bottle before she grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter and opened it.

Twenty minutes later very shaky hands fumbled to get her Iphone out of her form fitting hoodie, while her mind seemed to be swirling, trying to form the right words in her head while also trying to remember her brothers phone number.

"J-Josh?" her voice quivered as she spoke into the speaker after she heard the familiar yet sleepy sounding voice of her older brother. She suddenly felt very hot so she desperately tried to fan some air towards her heated cheeks.

"No. No, I'm alright.. I guess?" Faye quickly answered after he worridly asked her if she was alright. Slowly she sat down on the kitchen floor, her bare legs not even feeling the cold of the stones anymore, her back resting against the counter, the head resting against her exposed knees.

"I really, **really** need to speak to you though."

Slightly shaky hands clung into the letter as she read the three pieces of paper over and over again, always ending on the last page:

_I hope you will be accepting our offer and I will be waiting for your call._

_Best regards,_

_Vincent Kennedy McMahon_

_Chief executive officer of the WWE, Inc._

"**Fuck**" she muttered, her head colliding with the wooden counter behind her with an audible 'clank'.

What now?

x

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><p><em>x<em>

_So this was chapter one, which merely was something like an introduction if you will._

_Cyber cookie's to those who know who Faye's brother is ;) ...oh, just so you know, I'm trying my best to not turn this into a typical "Oh, she's the brother of..."-story, this idea is just somehow stuck in my head._

_**Next Up:** Introducing - the more or less rational (say what?) older brother & the content of the ominous letter._

_**Please review**, I'm open for criticism, suggestions... anything, please? _

_Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my humble story._

_Moony M._

_x_


	2. And letters

**Author's Note:**

_Hello my lovelies!_

_First of all I wanted to thank my very kind (and only) reviewer! :)_

_Also thank you to those who actually but this story on their alert list, favorites and whatnot!_

_**THANK YOU**! I still would love to actually hear from you... Say 'hi' to me, I promise I'm a nice person!_

_One a side note - to those who may (or may not) have wondered how Faye looks like, _

_I've put a link to a picture of her on my profile!_

**Disclaimer:**

_Uhm. No. Still not mine. *le sigh*_

* * *

><p>Breathing in deeply Faye tried to push her upper body as far towards her left foot as physically possible, her other leg bend as well. Wincing slightly when she felt her muscles protest as her nose reached her knee she breathed out audibly again and went back to her normal sitting position.<p>

Stretching was a must these days, especially after her doctor had given her green light to start training again. Nothing too excessive, her kneecap was still not fully capable of being resilient to the maximum but – she was on a good way to be her old self again. And ever since she had decides to turn her second spare room in her apartment into a small training room, she did a lot of Yoga, Pilates and running on the treadmill at home, only using the Gym and her personal trainer when it came to practicing her wrestling moves.

Some may would call it stubborn, she liked to call herself driven – one way or another, Faye knew that she wanted to be ready to go back on the road again as soon as possible, back to _SHIMMER_, to _Ring of Honor_, to where she **belonged**.

Or so she thought.

With a loud sigh she switched her legs, leaning her slim and lean body over until she felt the familiar ache of her muscles again as she gripped her light blue Nikes while her mind drifted back to the letter she opened yesterday.

She had felt restless ever since she read it over and over and over again.

Sleep that night? No sir!

Her mind revolve around dozens of questions that left her head in pain and impossible for her to find rest. Her heart was pumping so fast that after several hours of tossing and turning in her spacious bed that night, she had decided to get up at 4.16 in the morning, starting her day with a long run around her Detroit neighborhood.

It all came back to the question of how obliged she felt to the people who had pushed her from the day she set a foot into the business. What would Cathy say? Cathy – or better known as Allison Danger – who ran _SHIMMER_ together with Dave Prazak who Faye **also** owed a lot to.

"**Urggh**!" the brunette let out a frustrated grunt as she let herself fall back onto the Yoga mat rather ungracefully. Of course she couldn't thank them enough for pushing her the way they did, without their help her gimmick _Riott_ wouldn't have been so popular. Well, she worked hard for it, no doubt, but things definitely went easier with the two owners of the company standing behind everything she did. The question was, would they take it very personally if she would left _SHIMMER_...

Absently she started massaging her left leg, something her doctor told her to do to remove the stiffness of her muscles after her injury, letting her mind drift again. She knew that she wouldn't be the first **nor** the last to leave the Illinois based brand. She thought about Kia Stevens – known as _The Awesome Kong_ or now _Kharma_ under her WWE name and those who jumped back and forth between various promotions – did they worried so much before they signed their new contracts. It would be easier if she –

**RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIING RIING **

"**Fuck**!" she cursed loudly, her blue eyes wide open all of a sudden. Absolutely lost in her thoughts the sudden violent ringing of her apartment door nearly made her jump out of her skin.

"Geez..." she breathed out, trying to steady her rampaging heartbeat as she placed her hand over the thumping organ, before rolling off the black mat.

**RIIIIING RIIIIIIIING**

"Alright, alright-" Faye huffed as she made her way out of her training room, down the hallway towards the main door, freezing slightly as she realized that she had forgotten to close the windows of her living room. Skipping a few steps she was passing many framed pictures that smiled down on her from their position on the walls, trying smooth out the wrinkles of her black and gray _The Dirtbombs_ shirt she used during her exercises in a rush.

"I'm on my way damn it," she mumbled as the ringing continued "I swear if it's nothing important-" Faye managed to jump aside as the door swung open, otherwise there would have been a high chance of her being tackled to the ground by the familiar pair that was now rolling on her wooden floor.

**THUMP.**

She winced slightly as they collided with the hard floor audibly.

"**AARGH**. Give. **It**. Back."

Faye couldn't help but roll her eyes at their immaturity not even trying to hide the smile on her lips. She could deny it all she wanted – she had missed their crazy antics when she was on the road.

"**NEVER**!"

"Hey guys." she spoke lazily, kicking the door shut again with a shove of her hips.

Anyone else would have probably stopped and stared at the two grown – **yes**, she often had to remind herself that they where indeed older than herself – men, but not Faye. With nothing but a shrug of her shoulders she skillfully climbed over the human pile on the floor – she knew better than to interrupt or interfere in whatever they where doing right now, for whatever reason. She had stopped questioning the combined sanity of Joshua Harter and Patrick Martin long time ago.

"Faaye," she heard Pat whine behind as she made her way into the living room, drawling her name out.

"Paaat" she mimicked her brother's long time best friend as she turned around, making her brown her fly around her. He still lay on the floor while her brother had already sat up, snickering in what she assumed was victory.

"Your brother sucks" he said flat out as he stared up to her from the floor with that big grin of his, knowing very well that it never failed to make the younger Harter smile in return. She rolled her eyes playfully, placing one hand on her hips.

"Well, **duuhh**," Faye replied mockingly, her blue eyes twinkling with amusement. Only absently paying attention to Josh's protest and his useless try to hit her with a bubblegum wrapper, Patrick laughed loudly as she unfazed by their behavior turned around again.

Before she could make more than two steps ahead she was grabbed by her waist in surprise and with a sudden shriek pulled up in the air, "**JOSH**!" she gasped out with a laugh before she was put on the ground again.

"How's my favorite sister?" he said, spinning her around, lifting her up again in a bone-crushing hug. "Only.. Sister" she managed to breathe out, "Urgh, Josh-, _air_.."

She tried to shoo his hands away as he lovingly ruffled her hair into a wild mess. Josh's hair hidden beneath a beanie did not get the same treatment, despite her tries.

"**Damn**, Fe-" Faye looked up at Patrick concerned voice with a raised eyebrow in question.

"That looks nasty-" he said, driving his hand through his brown and blond signature hair, his eyes fixed on her exposed leg. Wearing her short dark green "_Michigan State University_" pants showed enough skin for them to examine the leftovers of her knee injury. Blue and purple, the bruises were a darker color around her kneecap and turned lighter towards her shin, fading already yet it was clearly still visible.

"Hmm," she agreed, touching her leg in response "much better than the first two weeks though, I'm back training already – **thank** god!"

Silence followed and she suddenly felt the urge to defend herself. "What?" she shrugged off the concerned looks of both of them, "my doctor said it would be alright!" They still looked unconvinced and shared a look that clearly said that they did not believe her. Or agreed with her to put it better, which made her huff in response.

"Oh, shush you two, " Faye said quickly, nudging Josh away from her, "come on now, I have to speak to you."

A demonstrative cough made her turn towards Patrick again, who still lay on the ground, grinning sheepishly. "Why _Mister Shelly_," Faye grinned "need help getting up?"

"Why please _Miss Riott_, if you'd be so kind." Both grinned at the mentioning of their wrestling gimmicks.

"He hurt me," he pouted dramatically as she offered a hand to pull him up. Suddenly he reminding her very much of a very lost puppy, the resemblance made her chuckle loudly as she imagined him with big dog ears. "Aw, poor, **poor** Alex," she played along "was Chris mean to you?" Faye mocked, using the ring names of her brother and Patrick, who just nodded eagerly, simulating a tear running down his cheek with his finger.

"You could kiss it better you know- " he said as she pulled him up, immediately gaining a harsh slap over the head by Josh.

"Damn- **man**," Patrick whined, rubbing the back of his head "Geez, I was only kidding asshole."

"You better be," Josh said with narrowed eyes "'Cus this-" he pinched Faye's cheek anything but softly "is a '**Shelley-Free-Zone**'."

"_Woohhoohohooo_," Faye imitated her best cheesy ghost voice, muffled slightly due to her cheek still pinched by his fingers "**really** scary Josh."

Patrick's smile was back on his face after she exaggeratedly rolled her eyes and teared her face away from her brother's pinch of death.

"Hey, I'm trying to have an older brother moment here," Josh said, huffing slightly as the two others continued to chuckle. "Sure you are man." Pat said with a good-natured clap on the shoulders of his equally tall best friend, pushing himself pass him, following Faye into her living room. As serious as he took his role as an older brother, whenever Josh decided to get all protective with her when it came to Patrick, Faye couldn't take him seriously. Heck – even Josh probably did not take his comments seriously. After all, it was Patrick. **Pat**. Josh's Pat. Alex Shelley. Motor City Machine Gun Alex Shelley. Well, the latter probably would be a reason for anyone else to get protective of their female company but Faye knew Patrick Martin for as long as Josh did – he was like another brother for her.

Now, she wasn't blind to his charms and looks but she knew how to play along, and to be honest, she hadn't met a female who did not get shaky knee's being in his presence, especially when he went all _I'm_ _Alex Shelley_ on them. He was funny as hell, a character trait she always had found rather endearing, a goofball, and despite being almost 30 he was still a kid at heart. Which pretty much summed up her own brother as well. Probably a reason they got a long so well **and** a reason that she had never seen anything else in Patrick Martin than the kid her older brother brought home from his first wrestling training sessions all those years ago...

"**Soo**," Josh let out after he threw himself on the spacious brownish couch in her living room "what's the reason for having us over in such a hurry-"

"Except for enjoying or glorious presence of course?" Pat piped in with a smug grin, him taking the seat next to Josh's right side.

"Yes, the reason I called yesterday-" Faye fidgeted slightly as she walked over to the large desk next to the couch, carefully walking around it to avoid more bruises to grace her leg, "is this."

She grabbed the big envelope from the table, waving it around slightly. Handling it to her brother she took the seat opposite to them, watching them with an equally curious and worried expression as they eyed the content of the _oh-so-ominous_ letter who's content had Faye called them in her distressed state the evening before.

"**Damn**," Pat laughed loudly and whistled in approval as they opened the first page, the infamous emblem printed over 1/3rd of the paper immediately making it clear who the sender was. "The WWE? That's quite something!"

Both read through the three pages of text which basically was summed up to the really simple statement that Vince McMahon wanted to hire her.

"I-I'm really not sure what to think of it to be honest," Faye replied, her right hand nervously playing with wisps of her her. Her eyes kept shifting back and forth between Patrick, who read the letter half-heartily, yet with a huge smile on his face, and her brother – who stayed unusually quiet.

"I mean, it would be a **huge** chance for me you know?" Faye continued, twirling her hair around her finger, trying to steady her thumping heartbeat.

"But?" Josh spoke up for the first time, yet he didn't look up from the letter he still held in his hands, his eyes still following the text lines.

"I-" Faye realized that she sounded way more unsure than the time she went through this conversation in her head. "I don't know."

She gulped loudly and looked back at Patrick.

"I mean, I feel so obliged to _SHIMMER_, is that really so wrong of me? I've been there for several years. **Years**! Is it so wrong that I feel like I have used them now? Jumping to the next best brand once I get the opportunity to so so? I-I feel bad. Somehow. It's just that I-"

"But this isn't **any** kind of brand, Fe." Patrick pointed out and she nodded slowly in response. "Sure, not as good as **TNA,** of **course**," he said with a grin, and Faye couldn't help but smile as well at the little skip, "but hey, we **aaaall** have to start somewhere, and everybody moves on eventually."

Faye smiled slightly, knowing deep down that it **was** the truth. She just needed someone else to tell her that, shooing away the voices in her head that where telling her that everyone would hate her if she'd leave _SHIMMER_...

"And you know," Patrick continued, leaning back against the backrest with his arms crossed behind his head so his well-defined arms where visible "Dixie will always have her doors open for you should you feel, ahh- I don't know, **misplaced** there."

Resting her chin on her bend leg Faye nodded again, knowing that the TNA founder Dixie Carter would sign her up in a heartbeat if she ever decided to show up in her office - yet for what reason Faye wasn't sure. Talent? Probably. Yet Faye couldn't help but feel that it would be for one reason only – and that was her brother...

"What are you planning on doing now?" speaking of which, Josh's light blue eye's meet her own ones for the first time ever since he started reading the letter and Faye sighed loudly, letting herself fall back into the soft fabrics of her seat.

It was a good question, which resulted a lot of answers. And even more questions after that. But seeing the look in her brother's eyes she knew that her greatest fear turned out to be false – him **not** being supportive of her. Pat seemed eager enough about everything, she knew that, it was something she cherished about him, but what really would decide over 'yes' and 'no' would be her brother's opinion. Idiotic in a way, she was a grown woman after all, but she could not help it, Josh was always someone she looked up to, and if he really had voiced out his concerns about going to a big company like the WWE, she would probably reject the offer...

But who was she kidding, Joshua Harter would always be supportive of her, that she knew. Instead fueling her worries he smiled that little know-it-all smile of his like he wanted to say 'whatever you decide to do, you are going to rock it'. He was simply the greatest older brother she could ever imagine.

"**Well**," she spoke hesitantly, pinching the bridge of her nose slightly "I... I guess I'll be heading to Stamford, Connecticut soon?"

As soon as the words left her mouth it felt like a huge weight was being lifted off her shoulders. Her brother began grinning wildly and Patrick was – being Patrick, rooting and cheering loudly, nudging Josh, cracking jokes that his best friend's sister going to be a _Diva_.

"One that's going to kick **ass** I hope!" he roared and even Josh laughed.

It all seemed so – surreal.

"Them better hold on to their silicone!"

Faye chuckled. Despite her feeling extremely happy in that very moment, she knew that she had to make some very unpleasant phone calls to do in the future which dammed her happiness for a short moment. She allowed herself to sick further into her chair, absently listening to Patrick and Josh, who where currently arguing about who to inform about their new found news first.

"Guys I haven't even signed anything yet!" Faye tried to interrup them, but they just threw a cushion in her direction. She caught it, leaning back once again.

"WWE headquarters, here I come..." she whispered slightly, suddenly feeling very, **very** exhausted.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Next Up:<strong> THE WWE - Meeting "the boss" and... who knows? :D_

_**Please review**, I'm open for criticism, suggestions... anything, please? _

_Just so I know I'm not writing this story for my personal entertainment only._

_Oh and I apologite, still no **DB** in this chapter, but I do not want to rush things and I'm trying my best to_

_have an actual storyline in here :) _

_Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my humble story._

_Moony M._


	3. And bosses

**Author's Note:**

_Hello my sugarcookies,_

_how are you all on this wonderful day?_

_Once again I'd like to thank my two lovely reviewers, seriously, reviews mean a lot to me so_

_**THANK YOU**! :)_

_Again I'd like to let you know that I do not plan on absolutley rushing things with the story, so bear_

_with me please! I'm always open to suggestions and wishes though!_

**Disclaimer:**

_I own nothing but Faye. So don't sue me, I'm a poor student who is _

_barely able to pay her rent, I have nothing. Sadly :(_

_Ask me in 10 years again..._

* * *

><p>x<p>

x

Faye gulped loudly as she stared at the impressive building of the WWE headquarters.

Her feet had began to drum an unknown beat ever since the vehicle that had transported her here from the hotel she had stayed in downtown Stamford, had haltered at the parking lot in front of the huge mirrored building, who's windows reflected the green surroundings. It was a nervous habit of her's, much to the dismay of the driver who was demonstratively giving her an arched eyebrow whenever he looked at her through the rearview mirror.

Which happened a lot she suddenly realized. _Creep_.

Looming highly of the ground the WWE emblem stared down at her – mockingly, teasingly. Her forehead was leaned against the cold class of the taxi window, her breath making it foggy. She had stayed in this position for quite a while now, still trying to muster up the courage to finally step out of the car and make her way towards her future- **and** probably making a fool out of herself for not knowing where she actually had to go.

It was not like the internet provided her with information like "_if you want to contact Vincent McMahon owner of the WWE himself, please follow this route-_"...

Faye had already been pretty jittery enough when she had called the phone number that was attached to the letter she received a few days, mentally preparing to be talking to _the boss_ himself and trying her best **not** to sound like a giddy, overly exited teenage while doing so. Her mind wasn't really eased when a rather snappish sounding lady with the name _Jody Richards_ picked up the phone, lecturing her about "_Mr. McMahon not taking calls himself so she had to talk to her if she wanted something_". Actually a bit confused at the 'personal secretary's attitude, she had tried to explain her situation in the most calm and friendly manner she could muster, despite the bored and highly uninterested 'uhuh's she received from the other end of the line.

Then with a sudden "_Mr. McMahon would like to meet you in person- how about this Wednesday?_" everything happened rather fast, and before she realized it, Faye had agreed to the appointment – which left her to organize a flight to Connecticut, a hotel and everything else that involved this life-changing trip within no more than **three** days. Of course she had agreed to the appointment, she had the distant feeling that she wouldn't get a chance like this anytime soon again – and it was not like she had anything better to do anyway, officially she was still recovering from her injury...

With a deep intake of air she looked at her wristwatch and sighed again. She still had about 30 minutes left to her appointment with no one else than Vincent Kennedy McMahon himself.

"Lady, you paid me to get you 'ere," the cab driver suddenly piped in lazily before lighting a cigarette "if you want me to stay here even longer, that's going to cost you some more, aye?"

'**Fuck.** You' Faye thought inwardly, yet did her best to send a halfhearted smile into the direction of the leering man, not feeling like getting into an argument with _Ferdinand_ at this very moment when her mind was revolving around something entirely different. 'You don't even know what's on the line for me right now' she thought with a growl, before she grabbed her bag and stepping out of the car.

With screeching tires the car drove away in a hurry, honking two times before speeding away, leaving her to roll her eyes at his behavior. Suddenly the wind caught her her, leaving her shivering slightly as she began to slowly walk down the path and that not only with anticipation. Flagged with white square stone plates, her heels clanked lovely on the hard floor, the echoing currently being only the sound around her, together with the wind in the tree's and the sounds of the busy street on the other side of the parking space around her. Her recently straightened hair was flying around her, making her regret not to have it put up in a bun before she left her hotel.

While walking towards the big entrance doors she inwardly tried to soothe out the none existing wrinkles in her outfit – another nervous habit of hers. Once she knew that was heading to Stamford, she had went crazy in her apartment in Detroit, finding the right outfit had been **hell**. She had hated herself for being so very girly at that moment, but she couldn't help herself – she most definitely wanted to leave a good first impression. Due to her career choice she never really had been in a position where she actually had to apply for a **real** job, like having to endure the whole job interview process and it was obvious that she wasn't in a position like that now – they where **offering** her a job after all. Yet she could not help to suddenly feel like she was being transported back into her high-school years, remembering how nervous she was when she first asked Mister Giangonetti at the small store not far from her families home, if she could earn some money working for him after her school time...

Different scenario now – same feeling. Just- increased **tenfold**.

Her outfit hunt ended with her apartment looking like something had exploded inside of it, her brother making fun of her as she expressed her distress to him as they where talking to each other on the phone and her yelling at him, demanding to put Jamie on the phone. Jamie Szantyr was known as _Velvet Sky_ to the TNA fans, her brother's girlfriend and definitely someone Faye would consider being able to give fashion advice. Even though probably not the first person to ask when you'd like to look **reputable**, that was something Faye realized after their conversation as well.

Nonetheless, Jamie had at least tried ease her mind. But when Faye had looked around her apartment, clothes laying everywhere she had realized one thing- she needed to go shopping – **of course**. She could almost picture Josh's sarcastic expression as he groaned at her statement.

The result was that she spend almost the entire Monday afternoon in downtown Detroit, running around to buy herself some new clothes while her brother thankfully booked her flight to Connecticut and her hotel. Faye felt good in her recently purchased new clothes, even though they did not look **too** business-y, but she had realized that she did not want to meet her future boss looking like she was dressed up. Instead she decided to go for a casual, yet presentable combination of light blue, skinny jeans that showed off her slender legs, a loose fitting black shirt that had a nicely stitched round neckline and a soft looking dark blazer that looked professional enough yet did not scream _too stuck-up_. It where the black 5 Inch buckle high heel boots that made her credit card scream in protest – yet it was for a good cause, so Faye did not really bother this time.

"Hold the door-" a distressed female voice suddenly called out from behind her as she finally made it to the entrance, making her jump slightly as she was pulled out of her thoughts, "-please, can you- hold it open?"

Faye stepped back slightly puzzled, yet immediately answered to the pleading as she noticed that the woman the voice belonged to hurried up towards her, trying to balance a huge cardboard box in her arms.

"Thanks-" the woman replied, her voice muffled behind the box, and Faye smiled slightly as she held the heavy entrance door open, even though she knew that the woman probably could not see it. Her sight must have be pretty narrowed right now, therefore Faye wasn't even able to look into her face – just a mane of nearly black hair flew behind the woman as she hurried inside with a rush, probably feeling her arms giving in to the heavy weight she carried around.

Faye tried to hide her smile as the cardboard box very ungently found it's position on the floor with a loud **CLANK**, the content protesting loudly.

"Good- **lord**."

Faye chuckled slightly at the woman's outburst, yet also felt slightly bad for her – evil memories of herself moving into her home in Detroit invaded her mind, lot's and lot's and **lot's** of boxes that waited for her to be carried inside... The thought alone still made her arms ache in protest.

"Uhm- do- you need any help with that?" she offered slightly unsure after she stepped into the big entrance hall, letting the heavy door fall shut behind her soundly. Her high heels clacked soundly on the blackish gray stone floor before they where muffled as she walked onto the signature red and black carpet and- before she could even help herself, Faye's heartbeat began to quicken again.

Distracted from the woman in front of her, she hasn't even realized that she had stepped into the lion's den already. Or- well, the den before the actual.. den. Faye cringed slightly and one finger began to rub her temple as she looked around. Situations that made her nervous always seemed to slow down her brain, making her usual quick and witty mind feel like it was chained to some very, **very** heavy weights..

The insides of the building itself was nothing like she had expected it – and yet at the same time it seemed so very typical for the WWE. Faye began to bite her lip absently as her eyes drifted around. Somehow she had assumed that everything would be covered with newspaper articles of the WWE, their superstars, the titles they had won, their achievements and just- well, very cheesily decorated, which she knew was a ridiculous thought but in her mind it somehow worked out. Instead the whole interior was highly modern, like the building was from it's outside already. Sterile almost, no unnecessary accessories standing around, the main colors being black, gray and silver, with highlights in a deep red, like the carpet they currently where standing on. Perfectly illuminated by various lamps and spotlights that where hanging from the high walls, it seemed like some interior designer created **the** epitome of the perfect interaction of style and technology here.

"Impressive, huh?"

Once again Faye was brought out of her thoughts, her expression turning from thoughtful to sheepish as her eyes found the dark ones of the woman who was smiling broadly at her.

"I-I-" Faye stuttered slightly "I'm sorry, what did you say?" a small blush crept into her palish cheeks as she let her right hand run through her hair. A smile tugged her lips as the still unnamed woman suddenly began to laugh loudly. "I did not mean to be rude or anything it's just that- I'm terribly-"

"Nervous?" the woman cut her off, her dark eyes twinkling in amusement. "Don't worry doll, I've seen the look on your face many, **many** times before. You would not believe me if I'd tell you how many guys had the jitters standing just right here, all pale-faced, looking **nauseous**."

The woman waved her hand around carelessly, obviously amused at the memory she recalled, but Faye looked a little puzzled.

"I assume that you're here to apply for a job of some sort?" the equally tall woman continued and Faye absently registered that she must be taller than her, since she wore high-heels, where the other woman wore flats...

She nodded quickly.

"Yes, I guess so."

"Well, at the reception there-" the woman pointed ahead towards the other side of the hall where a stern looking lady was already staring in her direction "Gina will know where to find Hal, he's in charge of the regular employees here, Kevin Dunn is in charge of the Television Production and- oh well, it all depends on where you are heading I guess?"

Faye breathed in deeply before replying, the words still felt strange as they left her mouth-

"Actually, can you tell me how I find the office of Vincent McMahon?"

Silence followed and Faye did not really know what to make out of the fact that the woman's mouth formed a rather stunned ' **O **'.

"You're a wrestler?" she asked rather surprised.

"Well, uhm- yes?" Faye answered, her brows furrowed in confusion. She usually got reaction like these a lot, but normally when she was somewhere else, surrounded by people who had no clue about the wrestling business and she had to defend her career choice when people told her that "she did not look like she was a wrestler". Well _duhh_, but how did a female wrestler look like nowadays? It was an incredible wide range from skinny, athletic to well-endowed thanks to plastic surgery and to big and muscular yet it seemed that still a certain cliche pictures existed in the heads of most people.

Yet with standing inside of the WWE headquarters, did she still look like she was misplaced here? The woman's reaction confused her slightly. Well, her body physique was light years away of being similar like those of a Beth Pheonix and also very far from being as _big_ when it came to her breast size as some Diva proudly showed of regions.

Faye wasn't someone who was overly vain when it came to her looks, she had her good and bad days, probably like all the female population, yet she worked out to keep her body trained. She was thankful that she has always been a rather slim person, being into gymnastics ever since she was little, but even herself had to do something for her figure, especially since her job was physically very draining, and doing the flip-flops, jumps, moonsaults, sommersaults and all the different wrestling moves did not come out of no where. Plus it wasn't like _SHIMMER_ recruited woman for their looks, it was the talent that counted, which Faye had the **slight** feeling that it would be different here.

"Oh, no- don't mind me" the woman said quickly as she noticed Faye's confused expression, waving her hand around with a grin "it's just- I remember that they had signed up another so called '**Diva**' a few weeks ago, who was nothing but another model to look pretty."

"Natalie almost freaked out when she heard that," she said more to herself with a smile.

Faye knew that it was an unspoken problem of the WWE at the moment, Diva's who where being pushed despite their obvious lack of talent but apparently looking good enough to get screen time. Yet she did not know whether or not she should be offended if this woman truly thought of her as someone who could **not** hold her own in the ring. Faye had never even wasted a thought on being a _valet _for one second in her career – her pride had definitely stood in her way for that...

"I'm Jo by the way," the woman offered her hand for Faye to shake, which she took slowly with a small smile. She seemed nice enough, "well, it's Josefina actually, but I will probably not answer to that name if you'd call me that!" She winked playfully and Faye nodded in understanding.

"I'm Faye,"she introduced herself "which stand's for nothing but-..Faye."

Jo chuckled.

"Well '_nothing but Faye_', you really can not miss Vince's office! Just get into the elevator, press the button for the third floor, turn right and you're basically already there, it's behind the glass front! His secretary-"

"Jody?" Faye cut her of unintentionally, recalling the snappish woman from her phone call a few days ago.

"Yes, that's her," Jo nodded, arching her eyebrow in sympathy "she can be a little complicated, just- don't get intimidated by her attitude. She just has to put up with a lot of crap, lot's stressed out people who want god-knows-what from the WWE and occasional fan boys or girls who think that they could get in touch with Vince just like that."

Faye hummed in response, only vaguely able to imagine how stressful the job as Vincent McMahon's secretary would be.

"But, you have an appointment with him, right? That means you have not much to fear anyway!"

"Not **much**?" Faye raised her eyebrows in question, making Jo grin at the sudden display of her nervousness.

"Well, not **much** expect for the usual, that being the presence of Mr. McMahon, who **can** be a little frightening no doubt."

Faye gulped loudly and Jo pattered her on the shoulder good-natured with a teasing smile on her lips. Slowly being guarded away from the entrance and towards the black elevator doors on the right, the Detroit native had to concentrate really hard not to make her legs turn into jelly.

"You sure you don't need help with that..box?" Faye asked meekly, sending Jo a nervous glance as she was being pushed towards her destination.

"No chance _bambina_," Jo drawled lazily taking a few steps backwards once they had reached the black metallic doors and she had pushed the ' **Up **' button "I'm going to let Gina call someone who'll help me with all this stuff."

Faye sighed loud and audibly as the doors opened with a loud **DING**.

"Well, good luck, break a leg and don't let Vince eat you alive!" Jo said with a wink as she stepped into the red and golden insides, and despite that Faye knew that the words where meant to be reassuring, she could not help but start fidgeting with the hem of her shirt as she pressed the elevator button. A nervous smile formed on her lips watching Jo, who did not even hide the amusement she was obviously feeling at the moment.

"I guess I will see you around then!" the brunette said with a small wave good-bye as the heavy doors closed, which made Faye realized that she did not even know how Jo was connected to the WWE universe. Before she could dwell on the topic even further, the movements of the elevator once again made her painfully aware how loud her heart began to beat in her chest, now that she was on her way to the meeting, that could probably named the most important one she ever had in her life...

x

x

Not even 5 minutes later she found herself sitting in front of Vincent McMahon's office.

Vincent. **Fucking**. McMahon.

Faye almost wanted to pinch herself to make sure that she was indeed **here** now. She tried her best to control her rampaging heartbeat, she had a feeling that people could hear the fast and the erratic beating of the organ from a mile away.

Once she had entered the office of Mr. McMahon she was greeting by _Jody_, who turned out to be a middle aged woman who looked as tough as nails with her prim and proper topknot and silver rimmed glasses. She seemed like she was guarding the entrance to what looked like some sort of lounge next to smaller office room like a watch dog.

Polite like she was Faye had introduced herself formally and Jody had quickly tipped away on her computer keyboard, checking her calendar if she **really** had an appointment with her boss.

'It's not like we have talked to each other 3 days ago' Faye had wanted to tell her and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the secretaries questioning look but kept it for herself. No need to make unnecessary enemies already.

She was being guided into the next room and was offered to take a seat on the spacious black leather couch while Jody brought a huge paper stack into the next room that was Vince's own office. And there she sat now, waiting for Vince McMahon, who was sitting right in the room next to her.

Faye shuddered slightly, rubbing her arms quickly to make the forming goosebumps disappear again.

The highly modern interior picked up the style of the whole building, just this time she found many pictures attached on the walls as well, showing various steps in Vince's career and the history of the whole WWE like a time line though the whole room. Before she could take a closer look at them, the door to her left was being pushed open and Jody stepped out.

"Mister McMahon is now waiting for you." she said with a nod into her direction as Faye jumped of the couch as soon as the door was being opened.

"Thank you!" Faye whispered, quickly looking up and down at herself before she breathe in deeply. 'Now or never' she thought as she entered the office of Mr. McMahon.

"Miss Harter," Vincent Kennedy McMahon greeted her with the signature rough voice of his, standing up from his desk walking up to greet her.

"It's an absolute pleasure having you here!" he said with a broad smile on his face and Faye tried her very best not to be star-struck or intimidated by him impressive size. Despite being 60-something years old already he was still build like an ox, looming over her in his size. She tried to shrug away all her thoughts of worry, now it was the time to impress.

"It's an honor for having me, sir!" Faye said with her best 1.000.000 volt smile as she shook his hand.

"A strong handshake," Vince said with a smile, "I like that! Please have a seat!" he said, guiding her towards the chairs in front of his desk.

"Can I offer you something to drink? Water, tea? A scotch?" he said as he sat down, Faye's eye's quickly flying over the desk – decorated with family pictures. 'A family man at heart' she thought with a smile, before quickly responding with a smile and a respectful "No thank you, sir."

"I hope you found your way here without any complications?"

"I did," Faye said with a smile, crossing her right leg over the left "minus the fact that I was a little awestruck when I first arrived, but besides that I had no problems, everyone in Stamford luckily knows where the WWE headquarters are."

"Good, good," he said slowly, before seeming to be fed up with the small-talk, "well Miss Harter, I think I made my intentions **and** the intentions of the incorporation clear – we want to sign you. There is no doubt about that and no use with talking around it."

Faye swallowed slightly but nodded only as he continued.

"Over the last few months we realized more and more that we have to listen to the fans, at least to a certain level, listen to what they want to see from our business. The Internet fan bases are very much influencing many of our decisions at the moment because – lets be honest, the wrestling business only exist because of the fans, no matter what brand or company."

"I understand," Faye said, still not really daring to ask why they'd want to sign **her** of all people, but he was probably going to tell her that as well.

"Good- things are going to change around here, we have already set various storylines with our superstars into a different angle than we first planned out to do, mainly because of the reaction the fans had to it and I have to admit, we have probably underestimated the combined power of the internet fan base."

He laughed a little and leaned back into his huge seat. "Now you're probably asking yourself where **you** will come in, right?"

Faye smiled in response and nodded again. "I **am** curious, I must admit."

"Curiosity is a good thing Miss Harter," he said, leaning forwards again, letting his big, muscular arms resting on the wooden desk. "you see, one of the things the fans are almost **demanding** to be a bigger part of the WWE again, are Diva's who can **wrestle**! There is no doubt that we are having a few very talented young ladies in our roster, that are simply not having enough screen time at the moment or- let me put it differently- **serious** storylines."

"Name's like Chyna, Trish Status, Sable or Lita are familiar to you?"

Faye nodded again eagerly. Of course they did. Those females once have been **the** poster girls for the WWE's Woman's division. And that was probably the thing he wanted to get at – they **had** been the poster girls...

"That is what we want to bring **back**," Vince continued eagerly, "Women who can **shock** the fans by putting on a five star match, who aren't afraid of getting **in** there."

He grew quiet all of a sudden, letting his chin rest on his folded hands, "I am very much away that it is an unspoken rule – TNA Knockouts **superior** to WWE Divas." he snorted slightly "which is **ridiculous** when you look at the position of the 'Top Female Wrestler's of all time', they do not have a single one of the TNA girls on it."

Faye squirmed slightly in her seat, not sure how comfortable she was feeling about him running his mouth on the TNA woman's division when she knew a couple of the girls personally. Yet she kept her quiet.

"My daughter Stephanie, who's in charge of the Creative Department, was **always** very supportive of the Diva's division and I think we have now reached a time to revive the old glory of it. What a better way to start with exactly that by hiring one of the highest celebrated and most promising young woman in the Independent company?" Vince said, again smiling the billion dollar grin of his and Faye felt her cheeks heat up.

"What I am offering **you** is a **guaranteed** one-year contract with the WWE and if things move along like I had planned them to do, there is **no doubt** that the contract is going to be extended!" he said with a broad smile pushing a highly decorated piece of paper towards her, the golden letters forming the word '_contract_' almost looked **too** cheesy to be real. Yet Faye couldn't help but stare down at it in awe. She was very much aware that a one-year-contract for someone who was new at a certain company was a very, **very** rare thing and most definitely a sign of trust... or desperation. Usually a 3-month-contract was common but hey – she wasn't about to complain about it.

"We have high plans for you Miss Harter – if you are willing to give your absolute best of course! The creative department is currently working hard on fitting storylines that will blow the fans minds away! Details of course will later be revealed – the most important question at the moment **is** – do you want to become a part of the WWE?"

Faye, who has been quiet the whole time couldn't hold back a huge smile. Despite the doubts she had before, once she actually had entered the building she had been smitten – the more so after she met Vincent McMahon himself.

"I would absolutely **love** to Mr. McMahon" she said with all honesty, fidgeting slightly in her seat.

"Now that is something I'm loving to hear," he said, laughing merrily "take your time reading though the contract, don't hesitate to ask me anything," he said, handing her a document that consisted- well- a **lot** of pages.

"Oh and Miss Harter, please call me Vince!"

"Then please call me Faye!" she said with a smile as she took the documents from him. Faye flipped through the many pages of the contract which felt heavy as she held onto it, not hesitating to ask Vince question once she stumbled over something that was unclear to her. She did not know how many minutes they spend discussing everything in regards to traveling, payment, accommodation and he assured her that, whenever she still had questions about anything, he would not hesitate to help her out.

She had once assumed that Vince McMahon would be a very tough and complicated man and not someone as nice as he was to her now. Truth be told, he was maybe only be nice to her because he desperately wanted her to sign the contract but she did not care – she **wanted** to sign this. With a slightly shaky hand Faye picked up the expensive-looking golden pen and signed her name on the dotted line under the highly decorated piece of paper.

Once finished Vince stood up, clapping his hands eagerly before extending it to her. "Congratulations Faye," he said in a booming voice, "welcome to the WWE!"

Faye could not help but grin giddily suddenly feeling very lightheaded as well.

"We're going to have a staff meeting the day after tomorrow, including meeting up with the writers and the superstars to get them familiar with the new storylines, which will also include yours from now on. If I'm informed right you're still recovering from your injury-"

"But in about two weeks I'm having the green light to get going again!" Faye cut in quickly, fearing that her knee would hold her back now, but Vince just laughed at sudden worried state.

"Eager to get going aren't we? I like that! But don't worry, your injury won't affect you in any way. Your storyline is still in it's development state as well as your new gimmick and you probably have to warm up to your future co-workers as well. Like I said, there will be a staff meeting where I'll be introducing you to everyone of importance, you will get your first scrip to practice the lines and will be cutting your first promo's during the next week – not involving anything in the ring at first. Is there anything else you wish to know?"

Faye shook her head, shifting her weight from one leg onto the other "No, I think it's all clear now, thank you so much for this chance". Vince laughed in response "Thank you for letting us have you... You are free to go now, Miss Harter, Jody will give you more information regarding the further events".

Faye smiled broadly as she left his office, feeling like she was walking on cotton on her way out. She only absently registered what Jody told her, typing in the dates into her blackberry to prevent herself from forgetting them immediately again. Her cheeks ached already from smiling get she did not care.

Regardless of who was watching she skipped the last few meters towards the elevator doing a little victory dance to the goal song of the Detroit Red Wings that somehow had found it's way into her head all of a sudden...

x

x

* * *

><p><em><strong>Next Up:<strong> Faye is meeting some WWE stars and her on-screen storyline will be revealed._

_**Please review**, I'm open for criticism, suggestions... anything, please? _

_Or PM me with suggestions, thoughts, or.. just say 'hi' to me, I'm always happy_

_to write with others so - yeah. :)_

_Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my humble story._

**_Moony M._**


	4. And Punks

**Author's Note:**

_Guten Tag meine Lieben :D_

_I hope you all had a nice few days since my last update._

_The part in Germany where I live has been pretty much been terrorized by thunderstorms over_

_the last few days which had been annoying but.. yeah, 'yay' for a very German-summer..._

_Once again I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to my lovely reviewers, especially_

_to **ThisIsNot-Music** and **aliveagain**!_

_**THANK YOU**, to all who have put my humble story onto their favs as well._

**Disclaimer:**

_No. Nein. Nyet. Non. Sorry._

**By the way:**_ Is anyone out there who is creative enough and willing to maybe create a banner _

_for this story? :D My photoshop just crashed... *sigh* And I have to wait_

_until my University starts again in a month to get myself a new functioning version :/_

* * *

><p>x<p>

x

The receptionist at her hotel luckily was nice enough to extend her stay, despite the groaning cue of people behind her who apparently all wanted a room as well – one of **the** rooms Faye first intended to only stay two days in. Yet with her change of schedule she had to stay for an additional three days to be part of the staff meeting that was held today.

Oh how a call of Vincent McMahon's secretary could work wonders. Faye had to do her best to hide the evil smirk that dared to form on her lips at the sudden change of the receptionist's attitude when her colleague had nudged the platinum blonde skinny shoulder, who's faced then turned from '_no way in hell we are able to extending the stay for __**you**_' to '_you are so __**very**__ welcome to stay as long as you want_' as soon as they heard that none other than one of Stamford most prominent and wealthiest residents would pay for the rest of her stay.

Faye had been lucky enough to had packed enough of clothes anyway, since she hardly ever could manage to pack '_little_' to wherever she decided to go – so the worry of eventually getting out of clothes was already crossed of her list.

Added only by the nervous rummaging in her stomach at the thought of attending the staff meeting in nothing more than one hour, and thirty minutes. As soon as she had calmed down from her giddy state of happiness and her grinning so much that her cheeks had hurt two days ago, it was replaced by the nervous flutter in her lower regions, similar like a student who feared going to school for the first time. Since actually that was what she would be – the new kid. The new kid that was hoping from the bottom of her heart that she wouldn't be making a fool of herself during the first encounter with those she was going to spend most of her time with during the next... well, at least the whole next year.

She could roll her eyes at quotes like '_just be yourself and you'll be fine_'. 'Why thank you Captain obvious,' she had thought mockingly at the words of her former _SHIMMER_ colleague which she knew should be nothing but reassuring, but this was always easier to be said than done when you weren't in a situation like this yourself.

Faye quickly tugged the gray oversized wool cardigan she wore a bit closer to herself as she opened the entrance door of her hotel, shuddering a little as she stepped out, greeted **once** **again** by a lot of wind as she hurried down the stone stairs towards her cab.

She wore jeans that where slightly more loose fitting than the ones from two day ago, which basically fit her like a second skin, the blue color was purposely fading already and the fabric was rolled up at her ankles, exposing a nice pair of black heels. She somehow had the feeling that there was probably no way to get around the fact that she would be someone of rather small height among... well, **rather** tall people to put it lightly.

Together with an form-fitting black V-neck shirt accessorized with her favorite necklace and her hair reaching her chest in soft waves she looked good. Not over dressed but simply – good.

"East Main Street, WWE headquarters, please!" she told the cab driver as she sat down, smiling politely at his questioning glance he send her through his rearview-mirror. Lucky for her the driver seemed to realize that she wasn't exactly in the most talkative mood, looking straight out of the window after she told him her destination, and thankfully he seemed to respect that as well. She truly hated nothing more than people who tried to get a conversation going despite her obvious '_I'm __**so**__ not interested in anything you have to say to me right now_' state.

The motor engines started with a familiar hum and Faye let herself sunk deeper into the leathery seats of the bright yellow vehicle and let her mind drift away. Haltering at the next red traffic light she grabbed her black bag – which was one of her favorites – pulling out her new deep red blackberry bold to check her inbox, smiling slightly as various unread messages appeared on her display.

_Keeping my fingers crossed love – kick their ass 3 Jamie (call me when u have time)_

The message from her brothers girlfriend Jamie Szantyr read out.

Faye had to admit that she had first had questioned the relationship of her brother with the former TNA woman's champion a lot and did not really know what to think. After what Faye had heard, Jamie seemed to have gotten over the breakup between her and Gregory Helms a bit too fast but hey – who was she to judge?

She knew that it was a mistake to judge her character only on what she had seen about her on TV and the short backstage greetings they shared whenever she decided to visit her brother. Faye knew that constantly traveling probably had bound them together- after all there must be a reason why many, **many** wrestlers found permanent companions in the women they where on the road with. 275 days a year on the road, away from the family made it a difficult task to maintain a relationship outside of the business, she knew that.

Since Faye was very close to her brother, Jamie had tried her best to get on the good side of the younger of the Harter siblings from day one, knowing how much the bubbly woman meant to her boyfriend.

And on the other hand Faye had to reconsider her opinion of the blond TNA Knockout who actually was an absolute sweetheart, which made her feel bad when she realized that she had misjudged Jamie completely. Now that _Velvet Sky _and her brother had been dating for various months- nearly a year already, they actually had grown rather close, much to Faye's surprise but also to her relief as well – knowing that her brother was dating someone who could keep up with him, understood him and was and was an absolute doll.

_Go in there... LIKE A BOSS!_

The second message actually had her laughing out loud for a second, which had the driver look at her strangely. Leave it to Mister _Shelley_ to quote from one of her favorite _The Lonely Island_ songs to make her feel better.

Faye absolutely loved the fact that when things got tough for her, she knew that she always had her family and friends to count on, something that was very important to her. She did not dare to imagine what she'd do without the huge support, partially depending her sanity on it whenever she was on the road. She was a very family oriented person who supported her friends with equal enthusiasm.

That Jamie and Patrick had written her now was probably her brother's doing after he had to endure another one of her nervous rants the evening before. What could she say? He was her older brother, she shared almost everything with him, and so it was Joshua who had to calm her nerves once again being the reassuring part after he had called her, trying to calm her down like the good older brother he was...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Well, Fefe, just look out for Phil, you **do** know him right?" Josh said after he patiently listened to his younger sisters rants, trying to hold back a grin while doing so. He knew his sister well enough to be unfazed by her ramblings that never- even after **all** these years- ever failed to amuse him. Why shouldn't they like her? Really, Faye wasn't a person who provided others a target to dislike her. At all. "While you do that you can remind him that he still owns me some money- I haven't forgot that bet!"

"Oh, wow Josh, that's **very** helpful," Faye replied sarcastically at her brothers mentioning of Phillip Brooks, "**You** know him, not me, I'm **just** the 'kid sister' you dragged along to your matches remember?"

Yes, Faye had once spend quite a lot of time backstage of TNA events when Josh had started out with the brand he now called a home – and yes through him she had got to meet a lot of their stars as well, always being the '_Little Sabin_' to them. Not that she had complained about it, she enjoyed her time there very much until she got more and more busy when she had signed up with _SHIMMER_, yet she had always been a welcomed guest to the Nashville based wrestling brand. But starting off her WWE career with reminding one of the current biggest stars of the business that she was the little sister of his former colleague – not a very good idea in her eyes.

"And I've last seen him at Joe's wedding and that was like what? 4 **years** ago Josh!"

"So?" Josh replied nonchalantly as he yawned into the phone, a draining day in the ring finally tiring him out. "Joe's still close to him, heck- a lot of us are- there are no hard feelings because he went to get his fucking **soul** sucked out by Vince-"

Faye had to roll her eyes. She knew, should Josh ever have a reason to turn his back on TNA, going for the WWE would **never** be an option for him.

"We're still talking, Joe is always curious to know how you are doing so- one way or another I think he might have already heard that you signed your contract."

"Oh- **oh**, alright, so **you** say that I'm just going to walk in there like 'heey Phil, remember me? Remember your TNA time like what? 5, 6, 7 years ago? Remember Chris Sabin? I'm his sister! Now would you please protect me from the big, bad people here who are probably going to eat me alive?', seriously?"

"Why not?" he laughed merrily, "hail Sabin, remember?"

"**Fuck** you," Faye huffed at Josh, who kept on laughing at his own joke, letting herself fall back into the many pillows of her hotel bed "you are not even taking me serious here!"

"Oh Fe," he said after his laughter had died down "you are simply worrying a little **too** much sometimes," her brother said, running his hand through his newly trimmed short hair "just kick them in the fucking nuts if they don't like you! Period!"

"**Hmmm**," Faye let out with a long sigh, "I know, I know."

With a barely audible _THUMP_ she let herself fall sideways into the soft cushions, her by now light brown hair spilling softly over the white blankets. "But what if they _haaate_ me?" Faye asked in her best whiny voice, muffled due to half of her face being pressed onto the mattress.

"Oh, because that is **so** what is going to happen," he replied sarcastically making her whine again, "if they do- tell them that you have friends who uhm...who know how to hide bodies- **that** will most definitely make you the popular kid at school again!" Her growl through the fabric she lay on sounded far from annoyed like she intended it to sound like, yet she felt far too tied at this very moment than to come up with another witty response.

"Feeling better now?"

"...Yes?" was her muffled reply.

"Good! Now **stop** worrying- I need to get going now Fe, Jamie is waiting downstairs."

A soft "Uhuh" was enough of an answer to him at that moment. "Love you sis, don't do anything I wouldn't do," he said making Faye snort in response all of a sudden.

"**Very** helpful Josh because that's pretty much- **everything**!" he chuckled deeply and Faye rolled back onto her back, "alright, alright- say 'hi' to Jamie from me, I'm going to bed now! Love you too big brother, I'm going to give you an update tomorrow again!"

And with that she shut her phone, slowly falling asleep to the noises of the busy Stamford streets outside, enjoying the cool breeze her open window brought into her spacious room...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She smiled as she recalled the conversation with Josh, quickly rummaging through her bag for her purse to pay the driver as they halted in front of the WWE headquarters.

He wished her good luck, like he could sense the nervousness she was feeling at this moment. She quickly wanted to made it into the inside of the building, so she jogged the last few meters instead of walking, reaching to pull out her blackberry as her other hand reached for the metallic doorknob. "Room 1030" she mumbled slightly as she pushed open the big entrance doors. This would be the room where the conference would be held but- in what direction did she needed to go she asked herself.

With a short shrug she decided to shorten her search by simply asking the receptionist.

"Excuse me please," Faye started with the most friendly smile on her face she could muster as she walked towards the blonde woman, "could you please tell me where-"

"Down the hall – the big room on the left." she was cut off by the the lady behind the table before she could even reach the reception counter.

'Oooh-kay' Faye mouthed as she froze in mid step, spinning slightly so she could simply walk ahead instead of walking towards the _extremely busy_ receptionist. Busy enough not to be looking up from her fashion magazine that is.

'Rude much?' she thought, but kept on walking, hopefully into the right direction...

Walking down the said hall she slowly got a feeling of how freaking **huge** this building was.

Yes, it already looked big from the outside, but when she was here the last time she only walked around the entrance hall and the way to Vince's office. Now she walked down the long hall with the nice big windows on the right, the black flagged floor underneath her polished to shine – her heels echoing slightly. The walls looked white enough to give away the illusion of just being painted, and some of the leathery seats she passed looked to expensive to be sitting in.

She absently began to wonder what room on the left would be the one she needed to get into, when the formerly distant mumbling she heard from farther away began to get louder until she reached a big double door who's black sign next to it had 'conference room' neatly printed on it.

'That must be it' Faye thought as she heard muffled laughter from behind the door. She managed to push the heavy doors open enough for her to slip inside and closing them behind her without making them fall shut **loudly**. No need to have an overly awkward entrance just yet.

The room was bright, much brighter than the rather dark hall she just came from so she had to blink a few times to make her eyes adjust to the light. As soon as they did, her heart began to be pumping loudly again in her chest. The room was huge. Not exactly packed with people yet but she had a feeling that the big table's who where forming a big **U** a couple of meter's away from her, would be filled with people in no time.

Right now there where various groups of people who where all eagerly talking to each other – no one noticing the brunette who stood next to the door, looking around with wide blue eyes.

Faye took a few slow steps away from the entrance, not exactly wanting to bump into the next best person who would be walking to the door she was standing in front of.

'Oh damn' she thought, gulping loudly- there stood Randy Orton, looking intimidating as ever and ready to bite the fucking head off the poor guy who was talking to him. Or maybe it was his usual expression she did not know. But **damn**, that guy had one mean stare...

A high pitched laugh made her gaze turn to the left and she noticed a woman – who wore a ridiculously short dress – swoon over a guy with oddly colored shades, a purple bandana and an equally colored shirt, apparently rather full of himself now that he had the female cling on his arm like her life depended on it.

Shaking her head slightly she let her eyes look though the room again, not able to hide the small exited grin that was forming on her lips at the sight of so many well-known wrestlers. Ted DiBiasi Jr. grinning at something Cody Runnels had said, she saw one of her childhood heroes Darren Mathews, better known under his ring name of William Regal and then her eyes suddenly met the ones of no one else than Phillip Jack Brooks who – stared back at her?

Surprised she quickly looked away, not actually being prepared of finding him looking at her as well but- eventually looked up in his direction again.

He looked at her like he was trying to make up his mind about who the heck she was, confusion clearly written on his face. Then – all of a sudden something seemed to dawn on him, his eyebrows almost reaching his hairline. He quickly said something to the blonde woman that leaned next to him on the wall before pushing himself away from it and started to walk up to her with big steps.

"**No** way," he said loudly his broad smile not leaving his, definitely making a few people around the room look at her all of a sudden as he walked up to her "you know, I heard certain rumors, Joe had called me because Josh apparently couldn't keep his mouth shut- but seriously, you **here** now?"

Before she could even response with something simple as a 'hello' she found herself in a nearly bone-crushing embrace and lifted of the ground for various seconds. "I had always pictured '_Little Sabin_' joining the TNA ranks like her older brother had done" he grinned down on her as he released her from the hug, making her cheeks flare up slightly at her former nickname.

"Man, I haven't seen you like you where what- **this** tall?" he said with a grin, holding his hand up to a height that resembled her own – minus the heels she wore. Well **duhh**, she rolled her eyes at his teasing and kept on smiling.

"It's good to see you again as well Phil," she with all honesty. Heck- she was more than surprised that he appeared to be so thrilled to see her – for what reason whatsoever, but she wasn't one to complain about it, better than him acting the opposite in fact. Maybe she had left a better first impression during her TNA visits than she had first thought she had.

"I heard the WWE has been good to you" she said smiling up to him. Of course she had followed the career steps of some of the former TNA stars, _CM Punk_ being one of the most prominent ones over the last few years. "Oh, you know," he replied, shrugging lazily, "I think it was about **damn** time!"

She had to grin at his bold statement- he was never one to beat around the bush, so that was something that hadn't changed over the years. His appearance hadn't changed much either, sure, he wore his hair shorter now, and definitely a few more tattoos decorated his arms now, but he still wore that odd lip piercing and that **smug** smile of his.

"The WWE, Faye?" he asked still slightly bewildered, "how come?"

She shrugged slightly, "did you needed a reason for leaving the TNA other than a change of scenery?"

"Hmm," he let out, scratching his chin slightly, one eyebrow raised as if he wasn't fully satisfied with her answer.

"**Anyway**, have you met anyone else here already?" he then asked, rubbing the knuckles of his right hand absently, his eyes quickly looking around her.

She shook her head, making her now slightly wavy light brown hair bounce a little, "no, I just arrived, I didn't exactly wanted to jump into the middle of the room screaming 'Hey, I'm the new girl, nice to meet ya'll' "

"Well that **would** have been fun!" he said with a grin, but quickly held his hands up in defeat as she gave him her best 'oh, really?'- look. "Right, I can already introduce you to that lady over there though," he said as he guided them towards the blonde he had talked to before, and who had been watching them with a raised eyebrow from her secure position near the wall.

"This is my girlfriend, Beth Carolan" Phil said as they reached the slightly taller woman, the smile on his lips widen even more, "**or**- Beth Pheonix depending on when you are asking her that!"

Faye swallowed slightly and tried her best not to be starstruck as she shook Beth's offered hand despite the rather strong handshake she received. Of course she knew who Beth Pheonix was. **Heck**, this woman could probably beat up half of the male rooster of the WWE if she wanted to, not even mentioning the woman's division.

"Beth, this is Faye," Phil introduced her with putting his hand on her shoulder, "she's the new one Joe mentioned!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Faye exclaimed with a broad grin, not really caring that she only got a rather tight smile in return – this was Beth **fucking** Pheonix. Her face probably dared to split in half at any second because she couldn't help but smile. If she ever needed reason to watch the WWE woman's division on television, it always had been **this** woman. The _Glamazon_. 154 lbs of muscles Faye tried her best **not** to be intimidated with as she stood right next to her.

**And** someone who was apparently dating none other than Phillip Brooks himself.

Now, Faye didn't know him **that** well, but she had heard enough rumors of him having a longer list of lovers that Santa was having names on his naughty and nice list combined. Chiseled features, a boyish charm combined with a lot of tattoos seemed to work wonders on many women- but hey, he seemed rather smitten with the blonde woman next to him. And Beth- well, **she** was staring at Faye with an unreadable expression clouding her angular features.

"Where you signed anywhere before?" Beth suddenly asked with a raised eyebrow, probably halfway expecting her to say no. The Glamazon's scrutinizing glance, making Faye shift her weight from one foot onto the other yet she met her gaze confidently.

"Yes, I was actually. I've been with _SHIMMER_ for the last 3 years to be honest and with the Ohio independent Circuit two, almost three years before that" she replied and suddenly watched Beth's expression lighten up at the mentioning of her former home-brand.

"_SHIMMER_? That's good!" the taller blond smiled, nudging her boyfriends shoulder slightly, who had been watching the interaction between the two women in front of him silently, "mean's she can wrestle!"

Phil just shrugged lazily, putting an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. "**Ahhh** you know," he drawled purposely, scratching the back of his head with the hand that wasn't securely attached to the hip of the blonde woman next to him, "I haven't expected anything less really!"

He shrugged again as Beth looked up to him in question.

"Her brother is one of TNA's finest," Phil explained with his trademark grin that hadn't change ever since she had last seen him. Faye's gaze dropped again as she felt the tip of her ears heat up again. 'So much for **not** bringing up Josh' she thought as she tilted her head with a small, awkward smile on her lips. "I remember her being backstage at TNA events a lot ever since Josh's debut so I guess it was just a matter of time for her to get into the business as well."

Faye nodded softly. "I've signed my first contract with 18 and have been training ever since."

"**Plus**- wasn't your crush on good old Joe one of the **cutest** thing's I've ever seen?" he mockingly rubbed his chin, laughing loudly as Faye gasped in surprise, her mouth open wide.

"**What**?" she almost shrieked, nearly chocking as he reminded her of her teenage crush on _Samoa_ Joe Seanoa- who by now was a married man, and still a close friend of her brother **and** Phil. "I can't believe you brought that up, Phillip!"

Both of her hands on her heated cheeks, Faye tried her best to prevent her face to turn into the color of a tomato.

"I was like what? **16,** 17? That's- a **long** time ago!" Faye tried to defend herself still trying to be serious despite failing to hide an amused smile as well.

It wasn't like something happened between her and Joe. **Ever**. He was 8 years her senior and just someone she had looked up to when her brother had first started to work for TNA, leaving her backstage whenever he fought in the ring and she visited him. He was someone had never made her feel unwelcome there like some others and never failed to make her laugh. He was very different in real life than the cocky and arrogant man he played in the ring, which somehow had resulted the **tiny** crush on him. At least she now looked back on it saying it was a tiny crush.

She now saw him as a good friend. Naturally. He was a married man now. And even if he wouldn't be- no. **No**. It was a teenage crush, something that made her embarrassed thinking back to it, but something that still seemed to amuse others. Like Phil.

Faye still stared at him with a very stunned and bewildered '_Oh no you did __**not**_' look, making Beth look at her with something that resembled... sympathy?

"Held any titles back at _SHIMMER_?" Beth asked after a while **thankfully** changing the topic, as her boyfriends laughter had died down. The blonde looking much more friendlier with the smile on her face now. Faye somehow had the feeling that with bringing up _SHIMMER_ she had passed some sort of unspoken test with her, and it wasn't like she had wanted to get on the bad side of one of the WWE's most dominating diva's.

"A few," Faye replied with a matching smile, not wanting to get into too many details about how many championship titles she had held, "recently lost mine though, which **somehow** had the result that I signed up with the WWE? It still sounds very odd to me when I say it out loud!"

"Why not TNA?" Phil asked, still not able to get rid of the smirk of his. "Surely they would have wanted to sign you as well."

"Well, you actually addressed it already," Faye said, rolling up the sleeves of her gray cardigan slightly, making her bracelets fall to her wrist again, "TNA equals Josh being there, and Patrick and- all the others."

She sighed slightly before continuing.

"Don't get me wrong, I **love** them to bits, seriously, I-I wouldn't let anyone talk bad about them but-" breathing out loudly she bit her lip, "I just didn't want to start somewhere and immediately to be known as Chris Sabin's sister. I want to make a name for myself and not putting up with the possible 'only being hired because of her brother'-crap. And the WWE is giving me the opportunity to prove myself. So- t**hat's** why." Faye finished with a quick grin.

"Plus, Vince made me an offer I simply could not refuse," she shrugged with a smile.

"Welcome to the WWE then," Beth proclaimed sincerely after a few seconds of silence "I'm looking forward to see what you can do in the ring, we all know that it's time for us true wrestlers to kick some butt!" she said with a wink.

"Thank you!" Faye replied meekly, immediately feeling slightly better at her warm words, easing her nerves a bit.

"Alright," the blonde said, patting Phil's stomach lovingly before standing on her toes to kiss his chin, "I'm trying to find Nattie around here, we still have to discuss or storyline. And **you** be nice," she said, poking his side slightly, "no more embarrassing the new girl!"

"I'll do my best" Phil said sounding anything but sincere about it, quickly planting a kiss on his girlfriends head. With a quick wave in Faye's direction Beth turned and disappeared into the now rather busy crowd of superstars who had found their way into the lounge by this time.

"So, it's up to me now to introduce you to everyone, hm?" he said with a raised eyebrow, the smirk once again on his lips now that his girlfriend was gone.

"Why _thank you_ Mr. Brooks, how very **generous** of you," Faye replied mockingly, not really caring about the former 'you're the new girl girl and he's a superstar so be respectful' arrangement she made with herself- he teased her so she decided to fight back. Plus he seemed like he could handle a joke or two, "I think I will able to do that myself as well!"

"Oh _Little Sabin_," he sighed dramatically, "you are making things more complicated than they need to be!"

Her blue eyes narrowed visibly at the nickname she was trying to avoid at all costs and huffed, "would you please stop calling me that?"

"What?" he clearly wanted to see how far he could push her. Oh no, **not** with her!

"Well- **that**. You **know** what!"

"_Little Sabin_?"

"**Phil**!" Faye gasped. It took a lot of her self control not to slap his shoulder in that very moment – but she wasn't sure if they where on that kind of friendly level already...

"Faye!"

"**Stop** it!"

"Why?" Oh the nerves of him...

"Because it's annoying me"

"Oh, _really_?" he replied with a laugh, in a tone that made Faye roll her eyes as she realized that he'd probably call her this more often simply for the sake of teasing her.

"Seriously, have you **always** been like this?" she eventually said with a defeated sigh.

"You tell me, missy, you've known me for a while now, do you?" he said with a smile, crossing his arms over his chest so his fully tattooed arms where now visible.

"Oh well, **let** me **think**," Faye said, acting like she was in thoughts "I think I have to pass, it's not like I've paid much attention to **you** back then, you know?" she finally said with a smirk on her own lips.

"Miss Harter, my poor **heart**," he replied dramatically putting his hand over his heart and Faye was sure that by now they definitely had a few people watching them, "that was a low blow. **Shame** on you!"

Faye couldn't help but laugh out loud at his facial expression quickly putting her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggle. She realized that she actually was glad that he had started talking to her. God knows things could have turned out a whole different way with him ignoring her, or not remembering who she was since Faye actually wasn't vain enough to believe that someone like him could have remembered someone like her

They kept talking about her motivation for joining the WWE and she tried to explain that she hadn't been trying to get signed by Vince – it merely happened, thanks to her injury really. She knew that this was an opportunity that happened once in a lifetime, so she took it. He asked about Josh, so she told him that he was currently dating Jamie. "_Velvet Sky_ Jamie?" Phil asked, Faye nodded, not really sure what to make out of the fact that he started laughing after that.

"Oh, there is someone you **have** to meet- you know, storyline wise and all that-" Phil suddenly said as his eyes where fixed on someone behind her. Turning her around by the shoulder he quickly started waving at a group of people who had just entered the room as well, "**yo**, Bryan, get over here!"

Apparently Phil already knew more about her storyline than Faye did herself, which was probably his girlfriends doing. Not that she cared about it much, but she could not help but feel a tiny bit left out as she watched the one who apparently was named Bryan walk over towards them since obviously had something to do with her WWE future...

She did not really wanted to seem impolite so she wasn't exactly staring at him, but she noticed the big, bold red letters forming _Submissive Wrestling_ over his shirt and that he was slightly taller as he halted next to Phil- who seemed to tower over her despite her heels.

And to think that he wasn't even one of the tallest ones in the business...

"Hey man, what's up?" _Bryan_ said as he shook hands with Phil who promptly switched sides so both of them where looking at her now- one with a curious, one with a smug expression on their faces. **Totally** making her feel comfortable...

Faye's eyes drifted back to Bryan, who just gave Phil a raised eyebrow as the tattooed Chicago native gave him a clap on the shoulder. Why did he seem so familiar to her?

"Good, good man. So listen, before anyone does- **this **is, wait- have you read your script?" Phil asked suddenly cutting of in the middle of his sentence, making the slightly confused blonde man next to him shook his head hesitantly, obviously a little bit freaked out at the enthusiasm the former WWE champion showed.

"**Anyway**-" he began began again and for a short moment Faye's eyes met the blue one's of Bryan, who looked like he was loosing the inner struggle with himself not to start grinning. 'Less shaggy hair,' Faye's thoughts drifted away again, her eyebrows still knitted oh so slightly 'more beard. Same grin...'

_Holy shit_.

"-I **know** you!"

Well, **yes**. This came out far more exited than she wanted to. At the same moment the words had left her mouth in a blur she had wanted to do nothing more than to bite her own tongue off seeing that both males looked at her like her suddenly had grown a second head.

'Good. **Lord**. Oh no I did **not**.' Faye thought as her eyes went wide with horror at her little outburst. _Oh dear ground, please open and swallow me up **right** now..._

Now she was sure that the people around her could probably watch how her cheeks flared up in embarrassment as she realized how utterly stupid this must have sounded...

She officially wanted to die when both Phil **and** Bryan suddenly began to laugh whole heartily.

_Way to go Faye, way to go..._

x

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* * *

><p><em>Enter Bryan Danielson aka. Daniel Bryan. <strong>Finally<strong>._

_Oh, and to those who may or may not be wondering about the CM Punk/Beth Pheonix pairing -_

_I'm simply picking up the rumor that they are dating in real life. Plus I think that they are actually a very nice couple :D_

_**Next Up:** HOW does she know him? Stay tuned, the truth will be revealed in the next chapter._

_**Reviews **are love and make my humble writer heart roar._

_Thank you for reading,_

**_Moony M._**


	5. And explanations

**Author's Note:**

_Bonjour my lovelies!_

_2 Updates in 1 weekend, now do I deserve some cyber cookies or what? :D_

_x_

_A big thank you once again to my very loyal reviewers:_

_**FindTheEnigmaWithin, Straight Edge Queen** and **aliveagain**!_

_Your reviews never fail to make me smile! :)_

_A Big thank you also to those who wrote me a message!_

_**THANK YOU**, to all who have put my humble story onto their favs and alerts as well._

**Disclaimer:**

_*Sigh* Sadly not, maybe one day but now? No..._

_x_

_Gah, this is my longest chapter up to this point - even though I tried to cut it shorter this time..._

_And failing at it... obviously... xD_

* * *

><p>x<p>

x

**S****hort Recap:**

"**Anyway**-" he began began again and for a short moment Faye's eyes met the blue one's of Bryan, who looked like he was loosing the inner struggle with himself not to start grinning. 'Less shaggy hair,' Faye's thoughts drifted away again, her eyebrows still knitted oh so slightly 'more beard. Same grin...'

_Holy shit_.

"-I **know** you!"

Well, **yes**. This came out far more exited than she wanted to. At the same moment the words had left her mouth in a blur she had wanted to do nothing more than to bite her own tongue off seeing that both males looked at her like her suddenly had grown a second head.

'Good. **Lord**. Oh no I did **not**.' Faye thought as her eyes went wide with horror at her little outburst. _Oh dear ground, please open and swallow me up **right** now..._

Now she was sure that the people around her could probably watch how her cheeks flared up in embarrassment as she realized how utterly stupid this must have sounded...

She officially wanted to die when both Phil **and** Bryan suddenly began to laugh whole heartily.

_Way to go Faye, way to go..._

x

x

x

x

She honestly didn't want to know what color her face was in this very moment, all she knew was that she needed to do some damage containment **right** now.

"N-No, I mean, I-," helplessly she looked towards Phil – no, not much help there, he was too busy looking like he wanted to press the moment of her embarrassment into his mind forever, smiling **way** too broadly for her liking.

She sighed loudly in defeat, trying to make the best out of her situation with a small as she titled her head slightly.

"Alright, alright, rewind- forget what I said," she said to Bryan, who in opposite to Phil, was nice enough to at least **try** to hide his amusing. Pretty much failing at it since he looked like he was biting the insides of his mouth to prevent himself from grinning, **but** he tried.

"I'm not sure if we're able to do that" Phil said from her right as he crossed his arms behind his head exposing the lucky clover and dice tattoo on the inside of his left arm. Faye did not even bother to send him another glare as he started chuckling again, so she gave him a quick nudge on his shoulders, her apologizing glance not leaving Bryans.

"**Anyway**, what I wanted to say was," she continued, quickly pushing a loose strand of her behind her ear again, "I'm Faye- nice to meet you, usually I try to make an idiot out myself until at least people got to know me better but hey- apparently I'm making an exception for you."

"Oh don't worry about it," he said as he took her offered hand shaking the quite smaller one slightly. His other hand was scratching the back of his blonde head a bit awkwardly as she continued to smile up to him- what could she say? She was a very smiley person – when she wasn't trying to leave a very **wrong** first impression on people she was introduced to. "So I'm already slightly prepared for the things that are to come?"

"Ah, don't count on it," she said sheepishly, rubbing her temple softly. Her outgrown bangs tingled her cheeks as she let her head fall to the right slightly, "I think that was enough for at least a... while?"

Both chuckled in amusement and Faye tried her best to keep her face from flushing once again.

"So I guess the whole introduction procedure took care of itself then?" Phil piped in again managing to pry Faye's attention away from the _American Dragon_, "since you were so eager to let us know that 'you know him' " he mockingly quoted her with his fingers, which earned him a halfhearted glare from the shorter brunette.

"To explain my little outburst," she said with a raised finger, especially looking at Phil who now had his arms crossed over his chest again while one hand tried to hide the clearly still visible smirk on his face, "with _SHIMMER_ I've defended some of my titles at _Ring of Honor_ events, so of **course** I know him!" she said with a cheeky grin.

Meanwhile Bryan also seemed to realize that they had met before, even though only rather briefly but _SHIMMER_ was closely connected to ROH events due to Dave Prazak's work with Ring of Honor, the two companies where closely affiliated. The female championship titles where regularly defended at _Ring of Honor_ pre- as well as main show cards and so he seemed to remember who the bubbly and smiling woman in front of him was.

"You **were** ROH after all!" Faye said gesturing with her hands enthusiastically actually managing to make Bryan cheeks turn into a very light pink color. It was not like he wasn't aware of his achievements, yet he absolutely wasn't that type of guy to go out and brag about what he had won ad what not. But it never hurt to hear it from someone else though – **especially** not it they where pretty brunettes.

For Faye to find out that the _Ring of Honor_ record holder had found his way into the WWE universe was something that honestly exited her. She had seen his ring skills, they had been amazing to say at least. No wonder he had been Cary Silkin's golden boy, after all he basically had won every championship title the brand had to offer.

"How on **earth** did you pursue Cary to let you go?"

"To be honest, I'm not even sure," Bryan said with a shrug and rubbed the stubble's of his beard as Faye mentioned the former owner of the Pennsylvanian based brand he had stayed with since their founding, "I just told him that I had the feeling to give the entertainment business a try and somehow he was rather cool with it."

"Really?" Faye asked in mild surprise, assuming that his leaving would have been greeted with a lot more protest on the side of his bosses.

"Let's just say the WWE was convincing enough for Mr. Danielson here," Phil said, clapping his hand on the smaller mans shoulder as they shared a grin, "he's made for the big screen believe me, **but** like everyone else he pretty much has to work his butt off first, I know what I'm talking about."

Faye looked at Bryan in sympathy, knowing how difficult things could be for someone new. But with **that** much talent they surely couldn't wait for too long to give him a title shot or at least a push, right? She knew that he had a **huge** fan-base during his _Ring of Honor_ time that surely followed his steps in the WWE as well. Vince mentioned something about listening to the internet fan-base more, maybe it had something to do with him...

"Hey, my goal **is** Wrestlemania," Bryan said with a sheepish expression on his handsome features, obviously not concerned with his situation too much right now, "ever since I was a kid so, I'm more than willing to work for it, no doubt!"

She definitely liked his attitude. Faye had already assumed that he was someone who put hard work over depending his success on sheer luck only. He was determined to work for his success- which gained him a whole new level of respect in her eyes at this very moment.

"But enough of me, you're new here right?" Bryan said with a smile, quickly looking back and forth between Phil and herself, "speaking of Ring of Honor, you're _Riott_, right? 'Tap-Out' Riott?" she actually had to laugh a bit at her former gimmick and the nickname that came along with it but nodded eagerly, "I **knew** I've seen you're face before," he continued, his blue eyes seemed to lighten up in excitement, "that match between you and MsChif at _Death Before Dishonor_ was **amazing**!"

"Thank you" she answered honestly fidgeting with her bracelet slightly. She definitely had her fair share of fights, but she knew right away what match he was talking about.

"But didn't she get injured during the fight, or was that just something I've heard?"

"No, it's true," Faye nodded, biting her lip slightly at the memory of the fight a little over a year ago, "Rachel separated her shoulder during the match, I'm not even that sure when it happened but I assume that it was during my try to pin her with a sunset flip powerbomb!"

Both Phil and Bryan winced audibly at the mentioning of that injury, something both seemed to be familiar with. Faye really could not say how the accidence happened but she knew, one wrong step could easily equal an injury, she recently had found that out herself. And landing wrong when she did exactly **that** move could easily do some damage.

"Her injury was the reason for my victory so-," she held up her hands in defense, smiling meekly, "it might sound bad but- it was better for me, it guaranteed me another title reign, god knows that she is one tough opponent."

"**Wow**, Faye" the tattooed man on her right gasped audibly, "coldhearted much?" Phil mocked her with a raised eyebrow, making her immediately feel bad when she thought back to the accident.

"**No**. No-" she pouted, her blue eyes wide open, "I-I really felt extremely bad after that, I still do, but I had to stay in character until the end of the match it's- the way it goes I guess. I pretty much lost my last title in a very similar way."

"You did?" and she nodded again, her lips set tight.

"Yes, to Madison Eagles who is like **freakishly** tall- and **no** Phillip, I'm not taking her height as an excuse," Faye immediately said with a raised finger as he saw his lips twitch in amusement, "the defeat was scripted, yes, but when she pinned me I pretty much landed **very** wrong on my knee- it threw me out of the ring for the following weeks, which **sucked** because I actually would have gotten the title back **immediately**-"

"But..?" Phil urged on with a sing-sang voice and a spinning gesture of his hand.

"-But **then** I got a letter from Mister McMahon and **é voila** – now I'm here!"

"Fascinating" Phil replied drily sounding very much like Leonard Nimoy, which earned him a very ungentle slap on the shoulder.

"**Hey**- you asked!"

"You look different now from what I recall though" Bryan said after a few seconds of thoughtful silence with a finger on his lips. His blue eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her, actually making her feel slightly flattered that he remembered such a detail about her.

She nodded in response as her hand went through her hair, making her golden bracelets dangle around her wrist, "Yeah, **this** is pretty much my natural hair color, I got rid of the **dark** brown **and** the pink as well, I'm not sure how much that **also** has to change, I haven't talked to anyone about my future gimmick really. Hopefully nothing that involves pink – I really want to say good-bye to that color for a while."

Pink had been _Riotts_ signature color, her hair had partly been a lighter version of it, her wrestling pants and tight cropped top decorated with a hot magenta, so she desperately wanted to move on to a different color in the spectrum. Even though it always had clashed rather nicely with her on screen nemesis McChif's all-green attire...

"Don't worry about it, it's **very** likely that you have to get used to something new," Phil pointed out "you see, they went 'all creative' on poor Mr. Danielson here."

"Oh, you know," Bryan drawled, his hand still attached to his scruffy beard, "they did not really take great pains to...come up with something different, switching Bryan Danielson to- _Daniel Bryan_."

Even Phil had to hold back a laugh now, it seemed like he found the name change as **odd** as she did.

"**What**?" Faye snorted very unladylike after she tried her best to contain her laughter, her mouth opening in disbelieve, "that's ridiculous!" she tried her best not to laugh but, seriously- they didn't really put a lot of effort into coming up with something different; heck- they could have simply stayed with his name instead of a change like **that**. But it probably had to do something with legal issues Faye didn't bother to dwell on.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, her brows furrowed in sympathy, trying to look less baffled, "that must be quite confusing- I know **I** would permanently mix up my own names in front of a camera if they would name me something similar like that."

"Replying the name over and over and over again like a mantra before I walk out to the ring does help though, it's not **that** bad." Bryan said as he helplessly tried to defend himself while both Phil and Faye could not hide their amusement if their life would have depended on it.

"Really!"

"**Alright**, if you say so_,_" Phil said with a chuckle, patting his shoulder reassuringly, "come on then _Daniel_, let's go find a seat! You too short stuff," he said tilting his head slightly towards the center of the room where almost all of the superstars had found a seat at the huge table already.

With the Chicago native walking ahead Faye followed him closely with Bryan behind her to one of the **U **corners, trying to seem as friendly as possible as she walked pass a lot of prying eyes. She recognized Beth next to the few empty seats they where walking up to, eagerly talking to another blond woman that was seated next to her.

So she found herself being placed next to Phil on her left, and Bryan on her right, having a perfect view over all the other wrestlers due to the openly arranged positioning of the tables.

Faye had to admit, being so very... exposed right now made her a bit nervous.

"Are you alright?" Bryan leaned over to her after her fingers had started to drum on the desk subconsciously.

"O-oh-... What?"

With a meaningful gaze he looked towards her still drumming fingers- "**Oh**!" she quickly said, stopping her fingers from making more noise, "well maybe I'm a **little** bit nervous maybe?" she replied sheepishly, pressing her thump and forefinger together to visualize her nervous state.

"Don't be," he tried to reassure her, "most of them won't eat you alive – and the other half will be on a different brand than you. It's all good."

_Duh_.

"That's **not** exactly calming my nerves now very well Mister Danielson," she let out with a huff, letting herself fall back into the chair. He did the same, mimicking her crossed arms.

"Oh, _Riott_ being scared. Who knew?"

'Excuse me-**what**?' she thought, equally baffled **and** amused. Was he **teasing** her? She was sure that her eyebrows where hitting her hairline in this very moment while the corners of her lips curled up into a smile.

"Don't you go there, _Daniel_" she raised her eyebrow in a challenging matter where her smirk betrayed her mockingly serious facade.

"Or **what**?"

_What_? Coughing slightly she almost had to do double take to make sure that it was really Bryan who was sitting next to her. Okay, she had to admit, she did not know him, they where introduced to each other like what- 30 minutes ago? Not that she was complaining- she hated nothing more than people who were taking absolutely everything serious.

She leaned onto the desk with her elbow, resting her head on her hands that covered her mouth. As she turned back around Bryan was still in the same position giving her his best victorious smile, her own eyes couldn't probably hide her own amusement either so she tried to give him her best 'don't you think this is over yet'.

"Oooo I'm scared," he mouthed towards her which she responded with a halfhearted roll her eyes, her laugh was suppressed by the hand that was still covering her mouth. Who knew he could be- like... **this**?

"Hey man," they were suddenly interrupted by another guy joining their spot on the table, "how's it going?"

The two of them shared a few words before both of their eyes drifted back towards her.

"New girl?" he simply asked with a grin as he sat down on the empty chair next to Bryan, not even **trying** to be a little bit discreet while letting his eyes drift over her. Faye merely nodded in response which made the bleached blonde man's eye light up even further. "**Nice**! I'm Nick by the way."

"Faye," her smile was a little shy as she shook his big hand.

"You two know each other already?" Nick asked, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt a little.

"We've met before" Bryan answered with a grin, earning a low 'Ooo' from Nick's side.

"So let me guess, _Ring of Honor_ then? Come on – details!"

With a short laugh Bryan began to tell Nick what he wanted to hear, that they both had worked for _Ring of Honor_ and that titles of the _SHIMMER Woman Athletes_ brand where usually defended at ROH annual events while the other blonde listened closely. Faye then had to explain what had brought her to the WWE, something she was sure that she would have to repeat a few times more in the future. During their conversation Faye found out that Nick Nemeth wrestled under the name of _Dolph Ziggler_ and that he was currently signed up under RAW contract- which somehow made her wonder in what of the two possible brands she would be ending up in. Nick actually didn't seemed to be such a bad guy – a bit bold, but she was sure that she could handle that – at least that was her impression during their little conversation.

His angular face always seemed to be split in half with a smile and his baby blue button up shirt seemed to enhance he intensity of his equally colored eyes. Admittedly, the slicked-back and bleached hair threw her off a little but it seemed like it was all part of the character he had to portray on screen.

Faye also shook hands with Natalie Neidhart as she turned around, admittedly a bit awkwardly as they both bend over the table since she sat next to Beth. Natalie was smiling broadly towards her as the other blonde was so nice to introduce them to each other. They didn't really got much further than the obligatory 'nice to meet you's, before everything suddenly went quiet as Vince McMahon entered the room followed by a bunch of sharply dressed people in expensive looking suits and business dresses.

Natalie – who insisted on being called _Nattie_ – quickly mouthed a 'we talk later' into her direction with a smile before both of them turned their attention towards the chairman of the WWE who absolutely not wasted any time, going straight into business. He began to talk about the future main Pay-per-View events and how many tickets had been sold until this point, a smaller pudgy man on his left began to talk about statistics after that and analyzed the ratings of both the _SmackDown_ and the _RAW_ brand, while a middle-aged man with black rimmed glaces talked about finances for at least 30 minutes afterwards.

Faye knew that this was all part of the business and a necessity to get through but good lord – having to listen to the ups and downs of the WWE's stock exchange value was **torture**. As interested as she at least tried to look like, when she dared to peek around the room she actually had to smile at the sight of how many of the superstars weren't even hiding the fact that they couldn't care less about what the gentleman at the top of the table arrangement had to say.

"Are they always talking about.. this?" Faye whispered towards Phil who nodded in return, "and worse.." he said, acting like he would be falling asleep on the spot.

"**Yay**" she whispered with the enthusiasm of a teenager that was confronted with math homework and sank further into her chair.

Many **long** minutes later Vince finally caught everybodies attention again when he started talking about Ohio Valley Wrestling and the progress the attending wrestlers there where making. Faye noticed Nick shifting on his seat out of the corner of her eyes which probably had to so something with the younger brother of his he mentioned and who was training with Ohio Valley. Vince went on to list all the current superstars who where out because of an injury – which were actually quite a few to Faye's surprise – and told everyone for how long they were still assumed to be missing before finally moving on to specifically talking about the future _RAW_ and _SmackDown_ events. He listed up the following cities the shows would be stopping next and what their plans would be for the next line-ups. He finished his lengthy speech with asking "any questions" in such a tone that probably didn't dared anyone to ask something in that very moment – it even seemed like everyone was somehow holding their breath expectantly.

"And finally to those who haven't noticed yet – we have a new member in our ranks," Vince then said, turning towards Faye who immediately wanted to sink even further into her chair that she already was, "Faye, would you please stand up?"

_Ooh crap_.

She now **really** was feeling like the new kid at school. Standing up rather hesitantly she felt all the eyes of the room on her now.

"Faye Harter everyone!" Vince proclaimed proudly which made her smile a little awkwardly as everyone began to clap as Vince did so.

'Most definitely a 9 on the embarrassment-scale' she thought while still trying to look more or less joyous.

"**WHOO** – **Go** Faye!" Phil screamed into the room from her right, almost earning a harsh slap over the head from her side but she was able to control herself, settling for a mean death glare in his direction after she sat down again.

"Alright then," Vince continued after the clapping had died down – thank god. She very much had felt like she was transported back into her childhood to those awkward moments when her teacher always insisted everyone to sing her a "Happy Birthday"-song when clearly neither she **nor** her classmates had been very enthusiastic about it.

"Everybody knows what to do- Mr. Van Crearen and Mr. Jacobsen here will hand out the scrips for the next shows, should anything be unclear – Stephanie and Ms. Gregs will be here to answer your questions."

With that everybody suddenly seemed to come alive, jumping of their seats, mumbling rose up from all around her.

"Ms. Harter, a word please" Vince said from the front, looking straight up into her eyes after he picked up a few documents from the table, his voice still booming over the busy noises of the other people in the room who all stood up to to get their scrips as fast as possible.

A bit hesitantly she stood up and walked around the table towards her boss, both Phil and Natalie simultaneously giving her a weird two-thumps-up expression as she quickly dared to look into their direction.

"Faye, this is my daughter Stephanie," Vince explained as she reached him, pointing to the pretty woman dressed in a black business costume next to him who was smiling back and forth between her father and the fidgeting smaller brunette, "she's in charge of the Creative Department and insisted on giving you the first insight on your gimmick and onscreen persona here in the WWE personally."

Faye actually felt herself shifting slightly under the gaze of the two of them, but Stephanie seemed to be nice enough – at least she kept on smiling towards her brightly.

"Nice to meet you," Faye said politely, shaking the taller woman's hand softly.

"Oh you have no idea!" Stephanie repeated with a laugh as she shifted the huge folder in her hand from one arm onto the other, "I'm sure you'd finally like to know what we have in store for you, right?"

"**Very** much so!" Faye said, excitement lighting up her eyes.

"I thought so," Stephanie said with a smile as she shared a knowing look with her father, who by now had his arms folded over his broad chest, "well, I'll be giving you a short summary of what we came up with and after that we'll come back so my father can officially hand your first scrip over to you, sounds good?"

"**Absolutely**!" Faye said out with an exited clap of her hands. 'Finally!' her mind seemed to scream at her as she did her best to control herself.

"Good, follow me." The two of them left the huge lounge through a side door entering a much smaller room that was attached next to it. It barely contained a couch and a desk but it had enough privacy in opposite to the busy room next to them.

"Have a seat please" Stephanie said as she sat down on one side of the leathery furniture.

"First of all I'd personally like to congratulate on your signed contract," Stephanie said, elegantly crossing a leg over the other, "I was really glad when I got informed that you accepted our offer."

"Like I could ever let an opportunity like that pass by" Faye said with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

"I have to admit that I was absolutely thrilled that you did, I'm finally getting the chance to extend and develop the diva's division more and you are the perfect, **perfect** start with that." Stephanie said eagerly, she truly seemed like it was something very near and dear to her.

"I'm glad to hear that," Faye answered honestly, "I'm hoping that I will live up to the high exceptions though."

"Oh, no need to worry, it's not like you'll be thrown out there just like that," she said waving her hand around slightly, "admittedly – we're rushing things a bit with you from now on, meaning that tomorrow night at the taping date of SmackDown here in Stamford you'll be shooting your first promo and depending how things turn from there **maybe** your first backstage segment as well."

Faye nodded shortly, not really minding that things where moving fast for her.

"I know that you're still not having the green light from your doctor, right?" Stephanie asked as she looked from her folder back to Faye, who sighed a little in defeat.

"No, not fully, I have another appointment on Monday where I'm hoping that he'll be giving me the okay to go!"

"That's alright!" Stephanie reassured her worries with another smile, "as for now our plans look like you won't be active in the ring for at least another two weeks, you'll be filming backstage segments to get the fans used to you and after that you'll have you're debut in-" her eyes looked down again, flying over the lines of the paper, "Sacramento- you'll be debuting in Sacramento, California. In the meantime you'll be having enough time to get your body used to wrestling again."

"Alright, that's good to hear," Faye said, really glad that her injury wasn't affecting her start with the WWE.

"As for your future gimmick-" Stephanie finally said and Faye couldn't suppress and exited grin as she shifted on her position slightly, "things aren't fully developed yet, mainly for the reason that we're still assuming that some character streaks will simply change at some points and we're definitely letting you have a say concerning a few but let's start with the name –"

She then handed her a paper with a rough draft and some sort of short summary of her gimmick to Faye who immediately let her eyes fly over it.

"Faye Harter?" Faye read out in slight disbelieve, "so I'm going to keep my name? My **real** name?"

"**Yes** indeed," Stephanie said with a laugh, "I'm not sure how detailed my father got when you signed your contract but if things **are** moving the right way, you'll have the opportunity to build up a whole brand with your name. Just thing about Randy Orton, John Cena, Trish Status – they all wrestled under their real name and became big with it."

Faye hummed shortly, her eyes still glued on the paper.

"See, people know you for your _Riott_ gimmick, we're aware of that so we will not **totally** taking that away from you," the head of the Creative Department kept explaining to her, "of course due to legal issues you simply cannot keep the name either, we tried but _SHIMMER_ is claiming it so we are taking this as a opportunity to develop you further. Let's put it this way – more Faye, less _Riott_, but still combined in one person. Keeping up the 'Detroit Rock City' attitude **but** with less pink in it!"

"**Thank** god!" Faye let out with a sigh of relief after hearing that, almost fearing that this color would be stuck on her forever.

"Like I said, we're eager to help you adjust to everything and to let you and your gimmick develop, especially now that you are still new to this business. Since _on-stage_ Faye is probably very closely connected to _real-life_ Faye you're still going to have a say in a lot of things that will concern you – like your entry song and a lot of different little things that will make you **you**."

Faye just sat on the couch in silence with a huge smile on her face, hardly even aware of the fact how lucky she was. She knew that some were simply pushed into characters that they had to live with, some even being utterly ridiculous – but with her they really seemed to have a lot of faith in her and her abilities. She truly felt honored.

"Now, read though these papers when you have time, there is no rush with anything. Listen to the entrance song suggestions we listed up on page three and let me know if there is any song that's especially to your liking tomorrow or the day after. Once you get your script from my father and you're **still** having any questions left, you are very welcome to contact me. Now, tomorrow you'll be getting pampered at one of the best spar's around here including a little make-over as well." Stephanie's gleam in her eyes at the mentioning of a make-over suddenly made her a tiny bit worried.

'Oh gosh, what's coming now?' Faye thought with slightly widened eyes.

"Oh no **no**, don't worry!" the brunette next to her quickly said as she seemed to sense her sudden nervousness, "it won't be anything dramatic, trust me! Just something new, something fresh, something to make you ready for _SmackDown_ – which by the way will be the brand you'll be first starting out with. So – I know it's a bit of an information explosion right now but- do you **have** any questions up to this point?"

Faye was torn between shedding some tears of joy, weeping dramatically at the expensive looking shoes of the woman who basically made her WWE future seem so very glittery and nice, and tackling Stephanie with a hug – all three choices seemed rather inappropriate so she settled with another shy smile and a shake of her head.

"Thank you," it came out far more silent that she intended to, somehow the tiny lump in her throat got in her way, "thank you **so** much for this opportunity Misses Mc-" but she was cut off immediately with a wild gesture of the woman in front of her.

"Please, none of that- it's Stephanie," she said with another small smile and Faye nodded softly.

"Well then, thank you **Stephanie**!"

"You're **very** welcome. Now go get your script, I know my dad doesn't really like to be left waiting for too long," the youngest of the McMahon children said with a wink, slightly tilting head into the direction of the door making the shorter brunette jump off the couch immediately.

"O-okay," Faye said quickly, tugging her hair behind her right ear, "good-bye then!" she said genuinely as she reached the door and looked around a last time.

"Don't worry, I'm sticking around a bit- so I probably see you around backstage a lot," Stephanie grinned, also standing up from the couch now, "plus you'll be having your first photo-shoot after your make-over backstage in the arena here in Stamford- I'll be there as well."

"Alright, see you around then," Faye replied meekly, giving her a little awkward wave before she disappeared through the door and back into the main lounge again.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

'Wow' there wasn't any more words for her brain to sum up what just had happened – and she hadn't even gotten her damn script yet. Back in the huge lounge that was still filled with many WWE superstars she leaned against the next wall she could reach, taking in a deep intake of breath, trying to calm down her thumping heartbeat. Once opened again her eyes immediately looked around for Phil, eager to let him know – heck, to let **anyone** know how **fucking** nice Stephanie McMahon just had been.

But instead of the tattooed Chicago native her searching eyes found those of _Daniel Bryan_, who tilted his head in question as they eyes met. She gave him her most stupid-giddiest thumps up expression, actually holding back from jumping up and down a little in the last nick of time.

"Still no script?" he asked with a smile as he walked over to her, waving around **his** folder purposely.

"No," she replied, shaking her head softly, instead she was holding up the three pages of her character's description, "but I got **this** summary of my future me though."

"Oh right, how did it go?" he asked curiously, his eyes widening slightly making her hide behind the papers with a laugh. It recently seemed like she smiling a lot anyway. Oh well, she definitely had her reasons for it. And Bryan, he seemed like a genuinely nice person- at least that was her first impression of _Mr. Danielson._ Plus it seemed like they were somehow bounded through the fact that both of them were _Ring of Honor_ alumni. "Do I need to call you by a different name from on?" he asked as he leaned onto the wall next to her with his right shoulder.

"Actually- **no**," Faye said, chuckling a bit- still kind of surprised about the fact that they hadn't come up with a crazy new name for her, "I'm still Faye, **including** even my last name."

"That would be?"

"Harter, so- Faye Harter from Detroit, Michigan. To make it sound more like a **brand** Stephanie said."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"Oh, yes, **yes** I think so, it seems like my gimmick will be a hyped-up version of myself, I think I can handle that," she answered with a smile, "could have been **way** worse!" she shuddered slightly at the thought to carve out a miserable existence as nothing but a valet...

"But what about you, kicking butt around here I hope?" she asked, quickly wanting to change the topic somehow as she flickered her finger against Bryan's oh-so-ominous blue folder.

"Always," he laughed slightly, "I'm gonna **bury** them all!"

"Oh, you will?" she arched one of her eyebrows in response.

"**Totally**!" he proclaimed in mock seriousness and after a few seconds of silence he actually had her laughing out loud until she stopped herself with putting her hand in front of her still broadly smiling lips.

"But it looks like we **do** have a few scenes together behind the camera," Bryan said, half of his face curled up in a smile, once again waving around the folder in his hand mockingly.

"Really?" she gasped in surprise eager to finally find out how her gimmick would be used, jumping away from the wall she was leaning on, "let me see!"

"**Ah**-ah-ah," he quickly said, taking a step back as she tried to peak over. He rolled-up the papers before she could be tempted to try and snatch it away from him,"you have to be a patient girl and wait for your own one!"

She was sure that he did this only to tease her, so she gave him her best narrowed-eyes-pursed-lips-'I can't believe you are so mean right now' expression. Now, was it a good thing or not that he seemed to know more than she did – with an expression like the one he had now she wouldn't be surprised if he'd start dancing and singing 'I know something you don't know' anytime soon.

Faye pried her eye's away from his, trying her best to focus on finding Vince McMahon in the bustle of people instead of roasting Bryan with her glare. Or trying to pursue him to let her read his scrip- whatever would be working best.

Now she really couldn't wait to read that **damn** text of her's, too bad that patience really wasn't something that Faye Harter was known for...

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_**Next Up:** Turning Faye into her onsceen persona and entering the backstage world of WWE's SmackDown._

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_**Reviews **are like the pink frostings on my cupcakes..._

_Don't me a silent reader! :)_

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_Thank you for reading,_

**_Moony M._**


	6. And makeovers

**Author's Note:**

_Hola my lovely readers!_

_I hope you are all well today?_

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_I'm currently having a terrible __cold - thanks to the awful weather here - _

_which leaves me with tearing eyes, an itching throat and a bad headache -_

_so not the best requirement to write a lot or writen very often. **Sorry**!_

_Once I feel better there will be a longer update again, until then, I hope you enjoy this as well!_

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_I'm sending out my biggest thank's to my reviewers who are actually the reason I keep going with this story :)_

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**Disclaimer:**

_No. I'm not owning anything but Faye._

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**_IMPORTANT NOTE:_**

_Even though I'm not planning on stopping this story anytime soon, I already have ideas for a new one!_

_There is **link** to a poll on my profile that gives you the opportunity to decide who my next story should be about._

_[a link because I'm somehow not able to publish two polls at once... o.ô]_

_**PLUS** a poll of Entrance-Song suggestions for Faye - _

_I want to make this story a bit more interactive, so **you - **yes you - as my wonderful reader have a chance_

_to make some decisions concerning this story._

_**Go vote please**! : )_

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Yes she had to admit, it had been a very pleasant surprise to see the woman again who had actually been the first person Faye had met when she had entered the WWE headquarters.

Josefina- or Jo like she insisted on being called had smiled broadly when she had noticed the newest addition to the wrestling rooster entering the backstage area of the hall they'd be taping the latest _SmackDown_ episode in.

"Told you we'd meet again," the striking had said, making her dark eyes sparkle with amusement and Faye ask herself if she unknowingly had met another fellow Diva. This wasn't the case as she was about to find out.

To be honest, Faye was glad to immediately be confronted with a familiar face after she had walked into the big Stamford arena – otherwise she probably had tried to follow the crowd of people that walked around until she would find the dressing and make-up room she was supposed to get ready in.

Luckily Jo had grabbed her by the wrist and walked ahead, greeting some people of the security staff, technicians and fellow backstage workers while Faye barely was able to wave an hello, walking straight into brightly lit room that had make-up scattered all over the big tables that where attached in front of the mirrors.

And now Faye had been sitting in there for a little above an hour since she came back from her little pampering marathon none other than Stephanie McMahon-Levesque had ordered her to undergo. Not that she really complained about it – it was a nice change of scenery to just enter that spar and let go. Most definitely one of the last times she would be able to do absolutely nothing in, well, at least a while. Just relaxing and do nothing for a couple of hours, she knew how exhausting the life on the road could be.

But there was nothing she wanted more, after all she had picked a life like this very voluntarily.

She made a decision all those years ago to become a professional wrestler, she **knew** how tiring a life like that could be, she had seen it on her brother. She had seen the bruises, visited him in the hospital often enough – especially during his first active years with TNA.

But she also had seen how fulfilling this life had been for him despite the injuries and the days on the road, despite the holidays he spend away from his family and the birthdays he missed.

No – if she had wanted a different life she had taken the scholarship she had been offered and would have become something entirely different. Something "secure", something that "didn't put your health on the line".

Those where the words of her mother as she tried to convince her to do something different with her life other than stepping into her older brothers footsteps. But deep down inside her mother must have known that her only daughter would want a life like this – otherwise Faye couldn't explain why she should have been okay with her decision to sign her contract with the Ohio Independent Circuit. To be honest she already had prepared to get into a fight with her - since Jennifer Harter was about as stubborn as she was- but no – with a "but be careful" her mother had embraced her into a tight hug and had been very supportive ever since. Thank god.

Especially now that she started something new it was good to know that her family had her back and it was definitely entertaining to hear that her mother had told her she had informed their whole Detroit neighborhood that her only daughter would be seen on national TV soon.

Faye could almost picture her barely 5 foot 2 whirlwind of a mother running through their backyard towards the fence that was bordering to the garden of their terribly nosy neighbor Mrs. Swimmer.

By now Mrs. Ruth Swimmer must have been 80 something year old, but even when Faye still had lived at home she couldn't stand that woman. No family that visited her that woman had lived alone for as long as Faye could remember, living only with her three dogs and god-knews how many cats, she was a mean, uptight person who liked no one. Especially not children.

Back in the day when they had played outside with friend or even on their own, that woman had always found a reason to complain about the noise they made. The laughing – too loud; they were playing soccer - "not near my house". And it got worse when both Josh and Faye started to get interested in wrestling as kids, scuffling on the ground, imitating their favorite wrestler's they had seen on TV – Mrs. Swimmer had the **nerves** to call the police on their parents because apparently they raised two "_very violent children_". Even the police had to roll their eyes at these accusations when her mother had tried to explain their situation to the officers as calm as possible despite the anger seething inside of her.

Some people just seemed to enjoy to make the life of others more complicated.

And with an absolute smug delight Jennifer Harter had informed their neighbor what her son was doing, instead _Ruth_ should ever wonder why he'd come to visit her with a cast around his neck or a broken arm. Their father was the absolute opposite from his wife- calm, patient, always amused about her rants which sometimes made Faye wonder who's character traits she had inherited more...

So after she enjoyed hours of merely relaxing to soft and soothing music, getting massages and various face masks, manicure and pedicure she spend most of the afternoon at the hairdresser, texting back and forth with her mother who wanted to get an update on **everything** that the hairstylists were about to do to her. Not the most easiest thing to do when you don't know what they were about to do.

Faye wasn't that picky when it came to her looks – as long as she wouldn't exactly get jet black hair or a pixie cut- she'd be fine.

And even that worry of her's was washed away by a flamboyantly dressed male who assured her that they'd keep her hair length and just "_freshen up_" her look. Whatever that would mean. She trusted them, after all she wanted something new – she wasn't at _SHIMMER_ anymore, so good-bye pink-purple-brunette hair.

After additional hours of smelling hair dye and conditioner she was finally able to get a glimpse at her new hairdo and – she liked it.

They had added some layers into her usual straight hair, adding some blonde highlights at the tips that now reached her chest in soft waves. It was something she easily could get used to and nothing **too** extraordinary – or so she thought.

Once she was finished and had immediately been brought to the Stamford arena where Jo had dragged her into the dressing room, the make-up artist did a double take as soon as Faye stood in the middle of the brightly lit room with the odd red pattern covering the wall.

"Oh my **god**!" the brunette had exclaimed with a loud gasp, holding her dark red painted hands up to cover her mouth, "you have **Whitney Port** hair!".

**Well**. Yeah.

Apparently this was a good thing since Jo danced around her giddily, grinning like a little child who just got a bucket full of candy. Now neither did Faye know who the heck _Whitney Port_ was nor was she fully aware of the fact that now she apparently was a proud owner of an _Ombre Hair Color_. Which made her feel slightly left out for not knowing about the latest trends of the fashion industry **but** she blamed it on the fact that as a make-up artist, Jo **had** to know these things.

So, most of her hair was her natural light brown color, only the tips were lighter- enhanced by the fact that it was now layered Jo told her. She was pretty much a blonde now.

They didn't waste anymore time due to their rather tight schedule so Jo thankfully decided to fill her in on what would happen next.

"Well, I'll be doing your make-up and hair, that's my job after all," the brunette said with a laugh as she guided her towards a chair in the middle of a long row of still empty seats, "after that Stephanie ordered me to pick out some nice new clothes for you and **then** you are ready to rock your first TV segment, right?"

"I hope so," Faye replied with an uneasy smile as she tried to get her scrip out of her hopelessly stuffed bag. If she was stuck here now, she might as well could go over her lines again. It was nothing big she had to learn by heart, but she rather wanted to play safe than making an idiot out of herself for screwing up her parts.

"**Oh**, that's your script?" Jo's eyes lit up in excitement as she noticed the familiar blue folder that was so very typical for the _SmackDown_ stars and she had seen many times before, "come on- **tell** me, what's your segment about?"

"Actually not that much," Faye replied humbly, looking down at the folder in her lap as she opened it, greeted by the highlighted green passages she had underlined to make her own parts more visible, "The first all about some sort of 'new girl is looking for the general manager' kind of moment where I'll be acting as if I'm lost as so I'll be asking the next best person for the directions to Theodore Long's office, he'll give me an attitude and then we will luckily be interrupted by the manager himself and I'm saved."

"And 'the next best person' will be?" Jo asked while she started to cover Faye's face with the first layer of foundation.

"Uhm- _Wade__Barrett_?" Faye answered with closed eyes, her brows furrowed slightly as she tried to remember the right name that so prominently appeared all the way through her script over and over again.

"**Ouh**." Jo whistled lowly making the younger woman jump under her touch.

"**What**? Why?" Faye gasped out slightly worried, "He's no dick, ain't he?"

"**No**, no," Jo replied, chuckling slightly at Faye's choice of words, reaching out for the brightest tone of concealer, "Stu is actually a really nice guy once you actually talked to him for a bit longer – but his on-screen character **Wade**, well- yes, he's a dick."

"Hmm, I thought so," Faye sighed slightly as she closed her eyes again, feeling the soft sponge spreading the make-up over her face. She remembered the lines in her head and judging from that _Wade Barrett _wasn't exactly someone she'd consider Mister Nice-Guy. But as long as long as the person behind it was alright, she had nothing to worry about.

"You said that it's the first part- so what's the second one about?"

"Me- or better said 'on-scree-Faye' talking to Theodore Long who is welcoming her to SmackDown, then they will be interrupted by Barrett again – he is mean, she is throwing back some comments apparently not taking his shit at all, which is making him even more pissed and angry at her until Teddy will send him away for his match!"

"Touché" Jo said with a smile, actually liking what she was hearing about the new storyline.

"So, his real name is Stu?" Faye asked after a short while of silence.

"Yes, well- actually it's Stuart Bennett. But he insists on being called Stu," Jo explained as she began to powder the Detroit native's face, "you won't be able to miss him once you'll start filming, he's the **really** tall and brooding dark haired guy, big tattoo on his arm- oh and he's from England. **Epic** accent I might add!"

"Hmm," she hummed slightly, carefully taking the information in.

"Don't worry, he really isn't a bad guy off screen," she said, nudging the shoulder of a slightly pouting Faye with the tip of her make-up brush, "as long as you're not joking about that favorite _football_ club of his, it's all good. Apparently that's a **very** touchy subject for him."

Faye raised an eyebrow at this.

"You know – this his one guy dared to do so and – he hasn't been seen since," Jo playfully mused as she stroked her chin in a playful matter, bursting out into loud laughter as she noticed Faye staring back at her looking **anything** but relaxed in this moment.

"Oh doll, **relax**," the darker haired woman said with a laugh, patting her shoulders reassuringly, "no one is going to eat you around here, okay?"

"I know," the blonde replied meekly, sinking deeply into her chair with a faint blush on her pale cheeks, "I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

"Well, that's understandable. But believe me, most of the guys and **almost** all of the girls here are pretty nice people to be around. **Heck** – I have to know, I'm dating one of those douches."

"You're dating one of the wrestlers?" Faye sat up as she registered what the brunette - who just turned around to the vanity table to grab some new brushes- had said.

"Yes, yes I do," Jo replied with a lazy grin as she turned around again, a pallet of dark eye-shadows in her hand, "he's with the _RAW_ rooster though, so we're currently testing out the long-distant-relationship thing until either **he** gets drafted to _SmackDown_ or **I** am able to snatch a job at _RAW_. Luckily we Make-Up artists aren't usually bound to one brand so- yeah, it's all good right now."

"What's his name?" Faye asked curiously

"Mike" Jo replied with a smile as she began to work on the newest WWE Diva's eyes, planning on giving her a very dark smokey eyes-look.

'Mike... Mike' Faye went over and over again in her brain, but the name Mike didn't ring a bell there. Admittedly, she didn't knew every wrestler's real name by heart, barely a few, _Mike_ not being one of them. Mike could be short for Michael. Oh well, she'd find out sooner or later, right now she felt it to be inappropriate to be asking Jo any more personal questions- she did not really come off as nosy.

After that the two women fell into a comfortable conversation with each other about everything and nothing. Jo told her how she had become a Make-Up artist for the WWE were Faye explained her the long road from starting out in Ohio over to being signed up by Vince nearly 7 years later.

"So, is Miss Harter having a boyfriend back home?" Jo asked teasingly after she finished her eyeshadow, moving on to the final touch of mascara.

"No, no boyfriend at home, no boyfriend on the road, Faye is single!" the blonde replied with a short laugh, her hands raised as she smacked her lips to spread the nude lipstick on them.

"Oh, why that?" Jo asked while she applied a thin layer of light pink blush onto Faye's cheeks, "you're **gorgeous**, surely you must have had many admires back at your old brand- what was it called- _SHIMMER_?"

"Well, _SHIMMER_ is an all-female brand, **so** dating one of my co-wrestlers was not an option since I'm not flowing **that** way," Faye said, tilting her head to the right with a smile, "we did spend time at many _Ring of Honor_ events, but mostly for just one fight and we where back on the road again." She breathed in and out loudly, shrugging slightly as she realized how lonely she had been sometimes, "I guess it comes with the job, Wrestling isn't really something that is good for a relationship unless you are dating someone who absolutely understands the business."

"There **are** plenty of single guys out there though," Jo replied seriously, putting away the brushes as she sensed the younger woman's change of mood at the topic, "I'm **so** down to play the matchmaker for you- what's your type then?"

Despite her tries Faye couldn't help but giggle at Jo's sudden eagerness to be her wing_woman_.

"**Noo**," she drawled, trying not to blush as she shielded her face from the other woman's intense stare with her hands, "I'm not even searching for a boyfriend at the moment, thank you very much!"

"_Hmpf_," the brunette let out with a huff, clearly not happy with an answer like that and clearly not believing her either, "well, if you **should** be interested-"

"But I'm **not**-"

"But if you **are**-" Jo playfully poked Faye's nose with the make-up brush, "let me know, and I'm going to hook you up with someone, you'll see- I **will** do that" she said with a wink, her laugh echoing though the room as Faye once again sunk further into her chair with an adorable red tinge rising up her cheeks.

"**Gee**, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this" she sighed in defeat, rubbing her heated cheeks with the tips of her fingers.

"**Anyway**," Jo exclaimed loudly, moving around the chair to the opposite side of the room, "we're done with your make-up, take a look in the mirror while I'll be busy with finding some clothes for you."

Pushing herself off the chair Faye took a close look in the mirror, halfway watching Jo out of the corner of her eyes before she checked her own appearance again.

'Wow' she mouthed slightly, clearly impressed with what she saw. Jo had did one **hell** of a job – the smokey-eyes looked pretty bad-ass, seeming to increase her already intense blue eyes ten times. It was definitely a bit **more** make-up than she would wear normally but now wasn't a normal occasion so she was okay with it. More than okay.

"Well, let's see- we've got your size an Stephanie told me to pick something _rock-ish_ but not **too** over the top-" Jo began to mumble more to herself than to anyone else as she went through the amount of clothes that was attached to the big wardrobe in front of her, "god knows we don't want you looking as desperate as Miss Massaro did, right?"

Faye walked around the chair she just got up from once she was able to tear herself away from the mirror, leaning back against the seat, absently wondering who this _Miss Massaro_ woman was. She bent one knee so one of her feet rested against the wood of the stool and simply watched Jo doing her thing. The brunette probably did not want to be interrupted anyway **and** she seemed to know better what style seemed to fit best for on-screen-Faye.

If she picked something hideous Faye assumed that she could still say no to it... right?

"No need to go out in bra and panties when you're shooting a backstage segment," Jo kept on talking with her back towards a very amused Faye before finally turning around with a pile of clothes in her arms.

"We've got **these** washed out Roy Rogers skinny Jeans," she said, as Faye pushed herself away from the chair to take the light blue pants from her, "and choose between the three tops here, they are all a bit more loosely cut so one side can hang over your shoulder and we can brush your hair over the other side, sound good?"

Faye merely nodded with a smile, actually liking her new attire.

"Don't worry, your ring wear will probably consist a very similar style," Jo continued as she looked around the room apparently searching for something, "you know, jeans shorts, cut up shirts similar like Kat Von D is wearing her's or jeggings, actually **really** cool stuff. Seems like Stephanie really put some effort to create a pretty bad-ass character for you style wise and not so very _skimpy-skimpy _like**some** others are preferring their clothes."

"**Unless** you actually want clothes like that" Jo suddenly quickly turned around and looked at her with slightly widened brown eyes. "Oh, **no**, nono-" Faye waved her free hand that wasn't holding the new clothes dismissively actually feeling slightly uncomfortable at the thought of just running out into the ring in pretty much nothing – in front of a **thousands** of people. **Millions** even since it was aired world wide. Not to mention that she would probably earn a slap over the head by her mother the next time she'd be in Detroit.

"Hey, I'm not one to judge," the make-up artist said with a smile as she held up her hands in mock surrender, "who knows- maybe you have an exhibitionistic side I'm not aware of."

With a slight snort Faye shock her head, making her newly turned blonde hair jump around her slightly.

"**Aha**!" Jo suddenly let out, finally seeming to have found what she had been looking for.

"And you'll be also be wearing- **these** shoes!" she moaned a little, kneeling down to picked up a pair of really **high** high heels, obviously smitten judging by the way she looked at them. Now, if she stayed in a position like that, Faye have could bet money on the fact that she was about to drool at the sight of the leathery goods.

"**Those** shoes?" Faye replied with an arched eyebrow as she pointed to the pair in the brunette's hands, her black rimmed smokey eyes gazing up and down the admittedly _slightly_ terrifying heels.

"Yes, **these** shoes!" Jo said again, demonstratively holding them up towards her, but Faye just shrugged slightly. Shoes were shoes- right? She loved shoes no doubt, but she wasn't a crazy shoe fanatic unlike the woman in front of her...

"**No**!" the brunette to her feet gasped dramatically, suddenly clutching the pair of shoes tightly to her chest, "heathen be gone! You are not worthy of these _Giuseppe Zanotti Sharon Boots_!"

"The- **what**?" Faye dared to ask, before barely jumping aside to not be hit by the Make-Up artist who apparently took great pride in knowing the brand of these- **murder weapons**.

"Hush you!" Jo laughed good-naturedly, handing her the pair with another dramatic sigh, "go now, try everything on, and don't you **dare** to tell me that they do not look fantastic!"

No, Faye didn't dared to, instead she chuckled amused, picking up the pair of black leather shoes and walked towards the corner of the room that had been changed into a changing cubicle.

Minutes later and after quite the fight against a very tight pair of jeans and a very **high** pair of shoes she stepped out it again, earning a loud appreciative whistle from Jo who stood not far away from her with her arms closed.

"**You** look **fantastic**!" the brunette said, eying her from head to toe, "turn around please?" she asked as she stepped up to her, picking up the dark gray-ish shirt so it asymmetrically hung from her shoulder. "You want to try on the other tops as well?"

"No," Faye said after she had looked at herself in the full-frontal mirror, "I think I actually like this one a lot. You think it's okay?"

"More than okay! Perfect to make a good and lasting first impression to the WWE universe if you ask me." Jo said, sending her another bright smile. "We're just going to put your hair over your shoulder like this-" she said, gently pulling most of Faye's hair over her left shoulder so the other one was slightly more exposed, "and all we need is to fix those waves with a whole lot of hairspray."

She quickly jumped away from her, running over to the make-up-covered tables, grabbing the biggest bottle of hairspray and started to spray it all over her for several seconds.

"**Done**!" Jo exclaimed happily as she looked at Faye, obviously very pleased with what she was seeing, "you're ready to go now and- well, you pretty much **have** to go now!"

Faye nodded quickly, taking one last look into the mirror before starting to walk towards the door again.

"You can leave your bag here until you are done," Jo said with a wave of her hand as she stopped to look out for said bag, "I'll be here the whole time, the other diva's will probably arrive soon as well."

"Alright," Faye said, sighing deeply before turning towards Jo again, "thank you **so** much!" she said jogging up two steps towards her, embracing the woman that from now on would be someone she'd be seeing for as long as she'd work for the WWE in a quick hug.

"Oh, doll, you're very welcome," the woman with the Italian background said before giving her a little push, "now go- **rock** that segment of yours."

"Aye, aye!" Faye laughed, giving her a two-fingered salute and then quickly walking out of the room with big steps. Or at least as big as the heels she was wearing where allowing her.

She was so lost in thoughts that were going over her lines over and over again, that she did not even looked out properly as she walked around the corner rather quickly-

"Ohh, hold on, **hold** on-" two strong hands suddenly grabbed her shoulders, preventing her from colliding with the person who steadied her rushed walk, "**not** so fast!"

Surprised, shocked and admittedly a bit embarrassed about her carelessness she looked up with big eyes, her features immediately lit up at the sight of the person who was standing in front of her.

"**Bryan**!" she let out happily, her face splitting into a big toothy grin, almost jumping up and down a bit. Yes, the sudden adrenaline rush sometimes made her react overly joyous.

"Hey-" he said, his face mirroring her happy expression, "**wow**, you look happy-" but then he stopped in mid-sentence, taking a step backwards "-wait, you look **different**!"

"Well yes," a small giggle escaped her lips "I'm officially trimmed to WWE Diva status now," Faye said, twirling around purposely, making her newly dyed hair fly around her. Apparently that was enough for him to stop talking and she didn't really know what to make of his reaction- he kept looking at her with slightly widened eyes which made her shift a bit awkwardly so she decided to guide the conversation away from her again.

"And **you**, having a match now?" she asked as she put her hair back over her shoulder again. He obviously was dressed in his ring attire, dressed in a white jacked with a ripped red pattern and white wrestling boots. She also realized that her heels almost made them equally tall. Almost. He was still an inch or so taller, thank to her being... well... small.

"Yeah I'm about to meet up with my opponent" Bryan said as he shifted the blue "Money in the Bank" briefcase that formerly was attached under his arms into his right hand.

"**Oh**- well, good luck with that I guess," she said, immediately furrowing her brows in sympathy at the sight of him grimacing, signaling that his loss was already scripted.

"And you, what's the rush about?"

"I'm about to shoot my first segment now to **finally** get this whole storyline thing going"

"Oh admit it, you just can not **wait** to get saved by me, right?" Bryan said with a grin, rubbing his bearded chin as he mentioned their connected storyline. She had to admit, there was **worse** than being put into a storyline with him. She had actually hoped for something like that – not that she'd say it out loud. **Ever**.

"Right!" Faye replied with a short laugh, pursing her lips to prevent her smirk from getting too big, "that's what my whole existence is centering around right? The fact that **one** day you'll be rescuing me from the big, bad wolf!"

"You know, that's what I do, I'm a nice guy like that."

For a few seconds they looked at each other, both with an equal smile on their faces, no one saying a word. Both probably thinking a lot, yet neither of them dared to say something out loud.

"Alright, alight" Faye eventually broke the silence with a small sigh as she stared don't at her feet before looking up again "I **really** have to go now, good luck with your match!" she said, quickly giving him a little wave, turning around on the tip of her heels to walk down the corridor again.

"Hey- **wait**," Bryan then said quickly, scratching the back of his head a bit awkwardly as she turned around, "some of us are planning to hit a bar after the show is done so.. Maybe you want to come along? You know to- get to know the others. And so on."

'Yeah, and so on,' Faye thought with a smile, barely able to hide her amusement as Bryan coughed a little then hesitantly meeting her eyes with an expectantly raised eyebrow.

"You'll be there as well?" she asked after a few seconds of silence with a tilt of her head, her mouth curled up in a tiny smile.

"Well, yes, of course," he said, the broad grin back on his face as he shifted the bright blue briefcase from one hand into the other, "- I don't **drink**, but that doesn't mean that I won't come."

"Hmm" Faye hummed as she took in the new information that he didn't drink any alcohol debating on what to think of it but quickly agreed with a nod of her head, "I'd love to tag along I guess- I haven't really gotten the chance to meet anyone yet, besides you and a handful of others."

It seemed like he sighed a bit in relief at hearing her agreeing to his offer before his face relaxed into an easy smile, his light blues eyes scanning her face. Oddly enough she felt her cheeks heat up under his gaze as she met his eyes so she quickly tried to overplay her reaction with a rather rushed clap into her clammy hands. 'Damn it,' she swore loudly in her mind, biting the insides of her lips slightly to prevent her from blushing some more.

"**Well**," Faye said after the clap, scratching her eyebrow with one finger, "I better get going, don't want Mr. Barrett to get a wrong first impression of me, do I?"

"Good luck with him," grinning again Bryan was already starting to walk backwards, seeming strangely _pleased_ with himself, "just don't look him in the eyes!" he said mockingly which actually made Faye snort loudly in response.

"Gee, **thanks** a lot," she said sighing theatrically, actually silently thanking him that he was someone who was so easy to get along with and apparently someone who did not notice her blush – or so she thought –, "**quite** a way to be supportive here, _Daniel_."

Hearing him laugh at this she waved him off with a smile, also starting to walk backwards towards her destination. She quickly added a "see you later then" before he might regret his decision of inviting her along, jumping around quickly to walk back towards the backstage corridors finally shooting her first backstage segment with the infamous _Wade_ _Barrett_.

Recalling her script he would be someone that was supposed to make the life of on-screen Faye Harter a little **less** bearable...

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_I hope you enjoyed this - please don't forget to vote!_

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_**Next Up:** A night-out with Superstars._

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_Thank you for reading,_

**_Moony M._**


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